HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


LIFE   OF 


HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


BY 

BERNARD  C.  STEINER 


JOHN  MURPHY  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
BALTIMORE  MARYLAND 

1916 


tr 


COPYRIGHT,  1916, 
JOHN   MURPHY   COMPANY 


PRESS  OF  JOHN  MURPHY  COMPANY,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 


PREFACE 

Two  Border  State  Union  men  did  much  to 
save  Maryland  to  the  Nation  in  1861,  and 
their  characteristics  were  so  diverse  that  they 
tempt  one  to  write  parallel  lives  of  them,  as 
Plutarch  did  of  ancient  statesmen.  The  life 
of  one,  the  great  lawyer,  Reverdy  Johnson, 
for  some  time  occupied  my  thought.  Having 
completed  a  study  of  Johnson's  career,  I  took 
up  the  life  of  the  great  orator,  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  and  have  endeavored  to  write  his  "life, 
in  the  manner  of  Tacitus  and  Plutarch,  rather 
than  in  that  of  the  modern  biographer,  who 
tells  us  what  we  ought  to  know  from  the  his 
tories"  (Saturday  Review,  December  13,  1913, 
page  750).  In  this  study  I  have  been  much 
assisted  by  an  autobiographic  sketch  of  Mr. 
Davis's  early  years,  written  by  him  shortly  be 
fore  his  death  and  placed  in  my  hands  by  Miss 
Mary  Winter  Davis,  his  only  living  daugh 
ter.  This  sketch  forms  the  first  three  chap 
ters  of  the  book.  Much  assistance  has  also 
been  obtained  from  the  volume  published  by 
Harper  and  Brothers  in  1867  at  the  instance 
of  Mrs.  Davis,  entitled  "Speeches  and  Ad 
dresses  Delivered  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  and  on  Several  Public  Occasions 
by  Henry  Winter  Davis."  The  editorial  in- 

343643 


troductions  to  the  speeches  therein  printed 
are  valuable.  Unfortunately,  I  am  unable 
positively  to  name  the  editor.  The  publishers 
have  no  information  as  to  this  matter.  Mr. 
Joseph  M.  Gushing,  an  intimate  political 
friend  of  Mr.  Davis,  once  told  me  that  the 
editor  was  George  B.  Milligan,  Esq.,  while 
Capt.  Henry  P.  Goddard  was  informed 
that  the  editor  was  Henry  Stockbridge,  Esq.; 
yet  the  families  of  neither  of  these  gentlemen 
can  throw  any  light  upon  the  matter.  I  am 
much  obliged  to  Messrs.  John  T.  Graham  and 
W.  Hall  Harris  for  information.  The  collec 
tions  of  the  Maryland  Historical  Society  also 
has  been  useful  in  preparing  this  book.  It  is 
a  privilege  to  bring  again  to  the  attention  of 
men  one  who  was  a  fearless  combatant  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  right,  an  eloquent 
speaker,  a  ready  debater  and  an  honorable 
man,  to  whom  more  than  to  any  other  one  man 
is  it  due  that  Maryland  freed  her  slaves  in 
1864. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER         I— Early  Years,  1817-33 7 

II — Kenyon  College  and  Tutorship,  1833-39.  *9 

III — The  University  of  Virginia,  1839-40-  ...  46 

IV — Practice  of  Law  in  Alexandria  and  Bal 
timore,  1840-55 64 

"                 V — The  Thirty-third  Congress,   1855-57 80 

"               VI— The  Thirty-fourth  Congress,   1857-59...  112 

"             VII — The  Thirty-fifth  Congress  and  the  Strug 
gle  to  Preserve  the  Union,  1859-61  ••  144 

VIII — Support  of  the  Union,  1861-63 194 

IX — The    Thirty-seventh    Congress    and    the 

Struggle  with  Lincoln,  1863-65 235 

"                X — Last  Days,  1865 350 


"I  saw  him  beat  the  surges  under  him, 
And  ride  upon  their  backs.     He  trod  the  water, 
Whose  enmity  he  flung  aside,  and  breasted 
The  surge  most  swoln  that  met  him.     His  bold  head 
'Bove  the  contentious  waves  he  kept,  and  oared 
Himself  with  his  good  arms  in  lusty  stroke 
To  the  shore,  that  o'er  his  wave-worn  basis  bowed, 
As  stooping  to  relieve  him.     I  not  doubt 
He  came  alive  to  land." 
— Shakespeare  (The  Tempest,  Act  2,  Scene  i,  lines  114-122). 

"The  brilliant  chief,  irregularly  great, 
Frank,  haughty,  rash, — the  Rupert  of  Debate." 

Lord  Lytton  (The  New  Timon,  page  31). 

"A  man  must  be  measured,  not  by  individual  words  or  deeds, 
but  by  the  whole  completed  record  of  his  accomplishments,  and 
by  the  dominant  motive  of  his  life." — (Ephraim  Emerton  in 
7  Harvard  Theological  Review,  229.) 

"Government  is  a  trust  and  the  officers  of  government  are 
trustees,  and  both  the  trust  and  the  trustees  are  created  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people." — Henry  Clay  at  Lexington,  Ky.,  March, 
1829. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY    YEARS  —  FRAGMENTS     OF 

THE  EVENTS  OF  MY  LIFE  AND 

TIMES   (1817-1833). 

[Written  in  1865.] 

I  am  now  forty-eight  years  old. 

The  glories  of  the  world  have  passed  before 
me,  but  have  not  lighted  on  my  head. 

I  have  lived  during  great  events  in  which  I 
have  not  been  permitted  to  be  an  actor;  but  I 
have  been  near  enough  the  scene  of  action  to 
be  able  to  appreciate  the  powers  and  conduct 
of  the  actors  and  the  causes  of  events.  A  few 
brief  memoranda  of  them  may  lend  interest  to 
the  sketch  of  my  uneventful  life. 

I  was  born  on  the  i6th  of  August,  1817,  in 
Annapolis,  Maryland,  at  the  old  Parsonage. 

My  father,  the  Rev.  Henry  Lyon  Davis, 
D.  D.,1  was  then  president  of  St.  John's  Col 
lege  and  rector  or  pastor  of  St.  Ann's  Parish. 

The  old  church  then  stood  in  its  original 
form,  of  colonial  origin,  with  its  square,  high- 
backed  pews,  the  pulpit  far  advanced  in  the 
body  of  the  building  of  the  old  goblet  style, 
with  a  lid  hanging  by  a  chain  from  the  lofty 
ceiling;  and  immediately  before  our  pew  was 
that  of  the  Colonial  Governor,  with  the  socket 


8  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

for  the  mace  which  marked  his  dignified  pres 
ence. 

My  father  was  a  man  of  genius,  endowed 
with  varied  and  profound  learning,  eminently 
versed  in  mathematics  and  natural  science, 
abounding  in  classical  lore,  endowed  with  a 
vast  memory  and  gifted  with  an  accurate,  con 
cise,  clear  and  graceful  style;  rich  and  fluent 
in  conversation,  but  without  the  least  preten 
sion  to  oratory  and  entirely  incapable  of  ex- 
tempory  speaking. 

He  was  of  high  tone  and  temper,  the  most 
unbending  independence,  and  sensitive  to  the 
least  suspicion  of  soliciting  favor  even  to  a 
marked  degree. 

He  was  a  Federalist  of  the  most  elevated 
stamp — early  embraced  and  always  adhered 
to.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Carlisle,  in  Penn 
sylvania,  where  he  contracted  an  early  friend 
ship  for  Roger  B.  Taney,  who  then  was  of  the 
same  way  of  thinking  on  public  affairs,  and  to 
gether  during  the  whiskey  rebellion  they  illus 
trated  at  once  their  courage  and  conviction  by 
heading  a  party  of  students  in  cutting  down 
the  liberty  pole  which  the  disaffected  had 
erected  in  Carlisle  in  defiance  of  the  govern 
ment. 

Their  fate  was  singularly  different. 

My  father  was  removed  from  the  presiden 
cy  of  St.  John's  by  a  Board  of  Democratic 


CHAPTER  1—1817-1833  9 

trustees  because  of  his  Federal  politics,  and 
while  Mr.  Taney  was  in  President  Jackson's 
Cabinet  my  father,  at  the  end  of  a  letter  to  me, 
then  at  Kenyon,  gave  me  my  only  lesson  in 
politics  in  this  laconic  sentence:  "My  son,  be 
ware  of  the  follies  of  Jacksonisml"  Such  was 
my  father's  popularity  among  the  students  and 
his  reputation  for  learning  and  ability,  that 
nearly  the  whole  body  of  young  men  deserted 
the  college  and  followed  him  to  his  private 
residence  for  the  benefit  of  his  instruction ;  and 
his  successor,  Mr.  Rafferty,2  an  Irish  Demo 
crat,  took  possession  of  an  empty  college. 

This  gentleman  had  the  usual  amount  of 
letters  with  which  Democrats  are  usually  tinc 
tured  and,  having  occasion  to  deliver  an  ad 
dress  shortly  after  his  elevation,  people  were 
surprised  at  the  eloquence  of  the  style  and  the 
familiarity  with  literature  it  exhibited,  till 
my  father  tracked  him  through  his  pilferings 
and  in  a  pamphlet  replete  with  refined  and 
classic  Latin  shewed  the  precious  stones  which 
glittered  on  Mr.  RafTerty's  pages  to  be  frag 
ments  stolen  from  the  composition  of  a  num 
ber  of  celebrated  writers  artfully  joined  into 
the  mosaic  which  he  palmed  on  the  public  as 
his  composition. 

Of  this  pamphlet  I  have  never  seen  but  one 
copy — probably  the  only  one  in  existence — 


io         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

now,  I  believe,  in  the  State  Library  at  Annap 
olis. 

My  mother  was  Jane  Brown  Winter,3  a  lady 
of  graceful  and  simple  manners,  fair  complex 
ion,  blue  eyes,  auburn  hair,  with  a  rich  and 
exquisite  voice  that  still  thrills  my  memory 
with  the  echo  of  its  vanished  music.  She  was 
highly  educated  for  her  day,  when  Annapolis 
was  the  focus  of  intellect  and  fashion  for 
Maryland,  and  its  fruits  shone  through  her 
conversation  and  colored  and  completed  her 
natural  eloquence,  which  my  father  used  to 
say  would  have  made  her  an  orator  if  it  had 
not  been  thrown  away  on  a  woman. 

She  was  the  incarnation  of  all  that  was 
Christian  in  life  and  hope,  in  charity  and 
thought,  ready  for  every  good  work,  herself 
the  example  of  what  she  taught. 

She  had  only  two  children,  myself  and  my 
sister,  Jane  Mary  Winter  Davis,  born  on  the 
29th  of  January,  1821. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  our  mother's  life 
and  teaching,  my  sister  grew  into  the  Chris 
tian  Missionary,  and  for  years  on  the  coast  of 
China  dedicated  herself  to  kindling  with  her 
husband,  the  Rev.  Edward  W.  Syle,4  the 
watch-fires  for  that  great  nation. 

I  can  boast  of  no  such  dedication  of  my  life, 
nor  of  any  special  points  of  this  early  training, 
but  the  exhortations  and  warnings  so  fervid 


CHAPTER  1—1817-1833  ii 

and  incessant  from  my  mother's  lips  against 
the  vices  and  excesses  which  specially  beset 
youth  and  early  manhood  have  not  been  whol 
ly  without  their  reward  in  preserving  me  from 
dangers  which,  with  my  temperament,  would 
have  proved  fatal  to  my  body  and  mind. 

My  education  was  begun  very  early  at  home. 
Under  the  sharp  discipline  of  my  aunt  Eliza 
beth  Brice  Winter,  I  could  read  before  I  was 
four,  though  much  against  my  will. 

Nearly  all  my  instruction  was  at  home;  but 
for  a  short  time  I  was  among  the  small  boys 
at  St.  John's  Grammar  School. 

When  my  father  was  removed  from  St. 
John's,  he  went  to  Wilmington,  Delaware,  and 
till  he  became  settled  there  I  went  with  my 
aunt  to  Alexandria,  D.  C.,  where  I  went  to 
school  for  a  while  to  Mr.  Wheat.  Thence  I 
went  to  Wilmington,  where  I  was  instructed 
under  my  father's  supervision,  and  that  in 
struction  continued  when,  in  1827,  he  removed 
back  to  Maryland  and  settled  on  a  farm  in 
Anne  Arundel  county. 

There  my  love  for  outdoor  life  and  sports 
gave  small  promise  of  scholarly  proficiency. 
I  was  always  too  glad  to  exchange  my  Latin 
grammar5  and  Erasmus  for  a  turn  in  the 
fields  behind  a  plough  and  with  a  scythe  taken 
from  one  of  the  slaves,  who  were  always  glad 
of  my  company  and  a  relief;  and  before  I  was 


12         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

eleven  I  was  inspired  with  the  sporting  fever 
and  roamed  the  country  with  a  gun  larger  than 
I  well  could  bear,  superintended  by  a  trusty 
servant,  Frank  Garner,  to  see  that  I  did  not 
shoot  myself  instead  of  the  birds.  Frank  lived 
to  be  set  free  by  me  and  to  enter  the  United 
States  service  during  the  rebellion,  to  drive  an 
ammunition  wagon  through  the  peninsula 
campaign  of  McClellan,  till  the  army  lay  at 
Hampton  Landing.  He  returned  consider 
ably  hardened  on  the  subject  of  life.  "Lord, 
Master  Henry,  a  dead  man  ain't  no  more  to 
me  than  a  dead  chicken."  He  saw  the  rebel 
charge  at  Malvern  Hill,  and  his  judgment  on 
the  rebels  was  that  they  would  stand  fire  very 
well,  but  not  the  push  of  the  northern  bayonet. 
He  was  my  guardian  in  my  holidays  and  my 
sports,  and  he  lived  to  see  his  race  reach  the 
promised  land. 

In  1830  my  father  sent  his  slaves  to  the  East 
ern  Shore  of  Maryland.  I  asked  the  privi 
lege  of  accompanying  them.  We  came  down 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  in  the  horse- 
car,  reached  Baltimore  at  night,  slept  in  the 
car  all  night.  In  the  morning  I  set  forth  to 
hunt  transportation  across  the  Bay,  but  found 
the  basin  and  the  Bay  fast  frozen,  though  early 
in  December. 

We  could  find  no  conveyance,  and  set  off  on 
foot  to  walk  by  way  of  Havre  de  Grace  and 


CHAPTER  1—1817-1833  13 

Elkton  to  George  Town  Cross  Roads,  a  dis 
tance  of  eighty  miles,  the  snow  ankle  deep  and 
unbroken.  We  walked  over  the  Susquehanna 
on  the  ice,  and  at  the  end  of  three  days  had  ac 
complished  our  march — a  pretty  good  one  for 
a  boy  of  thirteen  years. 

My  familiar  association  with  the  slaves 
while  a  boy  gave  me  great  insight  into  their 
feelings  and  views.  They  spoke  with  freedom 
before  a  boy  what  they  would  have  repressed 
before  a  man.  They  were  far  from  indiffer 
ent  to  their  condition.  They  felt  the  wrong 
and  sighed  for  freedom.  They  were  attached 
to  my  father  and  loved  me,  yet  they  habitually 
spoke  of  the  days  when  God  would  deliver 
them,  when  white  people  would  be  punished 
for  their  ill  treatment,  and  they  constantly 
considered  that  their  master  would  have  a 
great  account  to  settle  at  the  day  of  judgment 
for  them;  or,  as  they  expressed  it,  "Master 
will  have  many  a  black  man  hanging  to  his 
coat  tail  when  he  is  trying  to  get  into  heaven 
at  the  last  day." 

At  that  time  nobody  taught  that  slavery  was 
anything  but  wrong  and  evil;  the  negroes  of 
my  father,  like  other  men,  were  taught  to  look 
forward  to  a  day  of  freedom,  either  in  Africa, 
or  absolutely  at  his  death.  I  have  a  letter  of 
my  father's  to  Mr.  T.  McDowell,  of  Wil 
mington,  dated  4th  March,  1828,  at  Poplar 


i4         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Spring,  which  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Spooner, 
kindly  sent  me  because  of  its  bearing  on  the 
negro  question  now.  In  it  he  says:  "By  the 
blessing  of  God,  I  am  now  on  my  own  farm 
and  have  servants  more  than  enough  to  culti 
vate  it.  As  my  black  people  reach  25  years  I 
emancipate  them  and  send  them  to  Liberia, 
having  first  taught  them  to  read." 

I  and  my  sister  were  the  teachers  for  that 
instruction.  Most  of  them,  young  and  old 
learned  to  read  well,  but  none  of  them  could 
ever  be  induced  to  take  their  freedom  on  con 
dition  of  going  to  Liberia,  and  they  all  ob 
tained  their  freedom  only  after  my  father's 
death  from  my  sister  and  myself. 

The  South  brought  on  rebellion  and  the  cot 
ton  culture  first  turned  the  tide  of  opinion 
against  freedom  and  towards  slavery;  and  the 
Georgia  man,  with  his  broad  white  hat  in 
quest  of  slaves,  was  the  emblem  of  the  change 
about  1830.  As  an  illustration  of  the  temper 
of  the  times,  it  may  not  be  unworthy  to  men 
tion  that  during  my  father's  absence  my 
motherplaced  me  at  a  Methodist  lady's  school. 
My  father,  on  his  return,  instantly  removed 
me.  He  was  a  most  liberal  man  for  his  day, 
but  the  exodus  of  the  Methodists  was  then  still 
so  recent  that  they  were  looked  upon  as  sort 
of  rebel  Episcopalians — not  an  independent 
sect. 


CHAPTER  1—1817-1833  15 

Nor  was  political  temper  less  violent  or 
more  excluded  from  private  life.  I  once 
mingled  with  the  boys  at  a  funeral  of  a  Demo 
cratic  gentleman  during  the  fierce  contest  be 
tween  Adams  and  Jackson,  and  I  was  imme 
diately  saluted  with  the  inquiry,  "What  are 
you  doing  at  a  Democratic  funeral?".  From 
my  kind  relation's,  Dr.  David  Davis 7  hospit 
able  house,  where  I  passed  the  winter,  I  went 
to  Alexandria,  to  the  care  of  my  aunt,  and  by 
her  was  put  to  school  under  Rev.  Loring 
Woart8  at  Howard,  near  the  Theological 
Seminary  of  Virginia. 

He  was  a  cultured  and  elegant  gentleman ; 
he  married  Miss  West  of  the  Woodyard  and 
was  lost  on  the  Pulaski,  whose  disaster  is  fa 
mous. 

Mrs.  Wilmer,9  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Wilmer,  of  Alexandria,  mother  of  the  present 
Bishop  Wilmer,  of  Alabama,  kept  the  house, 
one  of  the  kindest  and  sweetest  of  women. 

I  never  have  met  a  man  who  could  lead, 
control  and  influence  youth  as  Mr.  Woart  did. 
He  joined  in  our  sports  on  the  lawn,  led  the 
skating  matches,  the  swimming  expedition, 
spoke  ex-cathedra  in  the  schoolroom,  and  in 
the  long  winter  evenings  read  Scott's  novels  to 
an  entranced  crowd,  giving  full  effect  to  the 
dramatic  cast  of  the  narrative  by  rich  and 


1 6         HEXRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

varied  voice.     It  was  a  high  lesson  in  the  art 
of  elocution. 

At  that  school,  which  was  very  select,  I  met 
some  persons  who  have  since  become  of  note 
in  various  ways.  Richard  Wilmer  is  a  bishop. 
George,  his  brother  is  an  eminent  minister, 
who  doffed  the  gown  for  the  rebel  uniform 
and  musket.  Mansfield  Lovell 10  commanded 
the  forces  which  evacuated  New  Orleans. 
Barton  Key,L  long  the  United  States  District 
Attorney  in  Washington,  the  son  of  the  author 
of  the  "Star-Spangled  Banner,"  whose  tragic 
death  at  the  hand  of  Sickles  M  convulsed  Wash 
ington,  and  Wilmer  Connell,  my  oldest  friend 
living,  a  friendship  inherited  from  our  fa 
thers,  now  a  gentleman  of  fortune,  living  in 
hospitable  ease  near  Philadelphia. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  i. 

1.  Rev.   Henry  Lyon   Davis  was  born  in   1775   and  died   in 
Howard  county   (then  a  part  of  Anne  Arundel  county)   on  his 
plantation,     near     Woodbine,     in    1837.        He      graduated      at 
Dickinson     College     in     1795.       He     was     in     charge     of     St. 
John's    College,    as   vice-principal    from    1816    to    1820,    and    as 
principal  from  i&2o  to   1824.     Rev.  Ethan  Allen  wrote  of  him 
as  "a  man  of  much  learning,   of  vigorous  mind   and  of  com 
manding  personal  stature."      (Steiner's  Education  in  Maryland, 
page   106.) 

2.  Rev.  William  Rafferty  was  elected  professor  of  Ancient 
Languages  in   1819,  vice-principal   in   1820,   and  was   principal 
from  1824  to  1831. 

3.  Mrs.    Davis's    health    was    much    impaired    in    her    later 
years,   so  that  her  children   had  much  of  their  training  from 


CHAPTER  1—1817-1833  17 

their   aunt,    according  to   the   recollection   of   Governor   Edwin 
Warfield,  whose  father  was  a  neighbor  of  Rev.  H.  L.  Davis. 

4.  "The  Rev.   Dr.   Edward   W.   Syle,    a   missionary   of   this 
Society  in  China  from  1845  to  1861,  died  in  England  on  the  sth 
of  October  last,  in  the  seventy-fourth  year  of  his  age.     About 
a  year   ago   he  was   stricken   with   paralysis,   but   resumed   his 
work.     The  day  before  he  died  he  had  a  second  stroke.     Mr. 
Syle,  an  alumnus  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  Virginia,  was 
appointed,  with  several  others,   at  the  meeting  of  the  Foreign 
Committee  in  November,   1844,     Mr.  Syle  and  Ids  wife  sailed 
from  Boston  on  the  28th  of  May,  1845,  a°d  arrived  at   Hong 
Kong  on  the  4th  of  October  following,  in  rime  to  join  in  the 
establishment  of  the  mission   station  at  Shanghai.     He  visited 
this  country  in  1853,  because  of  impaired  health,  and  presented 
the   claims   of   the   China   mission   with  great   earnestness   and 
much  success.     For  a  time  he  was  engaged  by   the   Domestic 
Committee  in  work  among  the  Chinese  in  California.     He  re 
turned  to  China  in  April,  1856,  and  resumed  charge  of  Christ 
Church  in  the  native  city.     Among  his  plans  for  benefiting  the 
people  to  whom   he  was  ministering,   Mr.   Syle   established   an 
industrial  school  for  blind  communicants  and  such  other  blind 
persons   as  chose  to   attend.     This  charity   was   received  with 
much  favor  in  Shanghai. 

"Since  his  resignation  Dr.  Syle  has  been  employed  in  China 
and  Japan,  holding  chaplaincies  for  seamen  and  for  foreign 
residents.  He  never,  however,  lost  his  interest  in  the  Chinese 
missionary  work.  For  about  six  years  he  has  been  living  in 
or  near  London,  during  which  time  he  has  been  employed  with 
much  frequency  in  representing  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
throughout  that  country."  (Through  the  kindness  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Frank  M.  Gibson,  Librarian  of  the  Maryland  Diocesan  Library, 
I  have  been  furnished  this  information,  contained  in  the  organ 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Missionary  Society,  The 
Spirit  of  Missions,  for  September,  1890.) 

5.  Creswell,  in  Speeches  and  Addresses  (page  19)  Mated  that 
Davis  always  kept  his  Greek  Testament  lying  on  his  table  for 
easy  reference.     On  his  knowledge  of  Latin,  Creswell  (page  it) 
cites  the  fact  that  in  a  visit  to  him,  shortly    before    Davis's 
death.  Davis  said  that  he  often  exercised  himself  in  translating 
from  Tacitus. 


i8         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

7.  Dr.  Davis  was  Henry  Winter  Davis's  uncle  and  was  the 
father  of  the  Hon.  David  Davis,  Associate  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  and  United  States  Senator  from  Illinois 
(1815-1886). 

8.  On  the  loss  of  the  Pulaski,  see  "Steamboat  Disasters  and 
Railroad  Accidents,"  by  S.  A.  Rowland — Worcester,  1846,  pages 
59,  88,  89.     The  steamboat  was  lost  because  of  "the  explosion 
of  her  starboard  boiler,  when  off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina, 
and  on  her  passage  from  Charleston  to  Baltimore,  June  14,  1838, 
by   which   disastrous    event   nearly   one   hundred   persons   per 
ished." 

9.  Rev.  William  Holland  Wilmer  (1782-1827)  was  the  father 
of  Bishop  Richard   Hooker   Wilmer    (1816-1900)    and   of  Rev. 
George    Thornton    Wilmer    (died    1898).     Whitaker's    Life    of 
Bishop  Wilmer  (page  17)  states  that  "in  1831  Mrs.  Wilmer  re 
moved  to  the  Seminary  Hill  and  opened  a  High  School  on  the 
site  of  what  is  now  the  residence  of  the  principal  of  the  Episco 
pal   High  School.     She  employed  two  instructors,  both  clergy 
men,  and  limited  the  number  of  pupils  to  eighteen.     The  school 
continued  for  three  years." 

10.  Gen.  Mansfield  Lovell,  of  the  Confederate  Army  (1822- 
1884). 

n.     Philip  Barton  Key,  killed  February  27,  1859. 
12.     Gen.  Daniel  Edgar  Sickles  (1825-1914). 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  19 


CHAPTER  II. 

KENYON    COLLEGE    AND    TUTOR 
SHIP   (1833-1839). 

From  Howard  we  both  went  to  Kenyon 
College,  in  Ohio,  in  the  fall  of  1833. 

It  was  then  the  Garden  of  the  Lord  for 
young  Episcopalians.  Bishop  Chase,1  the  lit 
erary  Daniel  Boone  of  the  West,  had  planted 
it  with  money  begged  abroad;  he  presided 
over  its  destinies  with  patriarchal  despotism 
till  its  growth  required  a  different  and  more 
steady  rule,  and  then  went  forth  to  found  an 
other  garden  farther  in  the  forest,  while 
Bishop  Mcllvain  2  came  to  guide  Kenyon  to 
its  future  fortunes. 

I  got  there  during  the  first  year  of  Mcll 
vain. 

Wilmer  Connell  was  my  chum.  My  letter 
states  the  share  of  the  burthens.  On  rising 
"Wilmer  and  I  make  up  our  beds;  he  makes 
the  fire  and  I  sweep  out  the  room,  I  bring  a 
bucket  of  water  at  night  for  washing;  in  the 
morning,  for  drinking  during  the  day."  Shoes 
shone  only  on  state  occasions. 

I  was  the  sole  representative  and  substitute 
of  the  swarm  of  black  people  who  ate  my  fa 
ther  out  of  house  and  home. 


20         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Under  such  a  system  the  expenses  ought  not 
to  have  been  great;  but  I  read  now  with  some 
amusement  the  following: 

"My  whole  bill  with  Mr.  Wing,  the  treas 
urer,  amounts  to  $88 — that  is,  $30  for  tuition, 
$50  for  board  and  for  the  attendance  of  the 
college  physician  during  term,  $6  for  room 
rent."  Washing  was  $6  per  annum. 

The  mystery  of  sending  young  gentlemen 
from  the  cultivation  of  Maryland  to  the  rude 
West  for  education  found  its  solution  in  the 
ardor  of  the  Episcopal  missionary  who  found 
ed  Kenyon.  He  made  it  the  Mecca  of  Epis 
copacy.  Towards  it  all  good  churchmen  wor 
shiped  from  Louisiana  and  from  Maine.  At 
that  holy  seat  the  church  had  assumed  its  le 
gitimate  prerogative  of  bringing  up  youth  in 
the  way  it  should  go,  and  all  "churchmen" 
were  enthusiastic  in  supporting  the  great  pro 
test  against  Godless  education  at  dissenting 
seminaries.  Thus  it  was  that  the  best  people 
not  only  of  Louisiana  and  North  Carolina,  but 
from  the  ends  of  Maine  and  the  neighborhood 
of  Harvard,  sent  their  sons  to  Kenyon,  that 
they  might  sit  under  the  drippings  of  Episco 
pal  grace. 

In  these  days  of  extravagance  it  will  hardly 
be  believed  that  eighty  or  a  hundred  dollars 
covered  every  legitimate  and  reasonable  ex 
pense  of  a  year  at  the  college,  and  that  in  the 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  21 

woods  not  much  more  could  be  spent  for  want 
of  things  desirable  to  purchase. 

This  cheapness  doubtless  quickened  the  sec 
tarian  zeal  which  prompted  so  distant  a  pil 
grimage  to  so  holy  a  shrine.  For  me  it  was  a 
fortunate  and  a  determining  circumstance. 

I  crossed  the  Alleghanies  by  the  National 
Road,  on  the  top  of  the  stage  for  the  benefit  of 
the  scenery.  It  was  my  first  view  of  the  great 
ridge  which  I  then  climbed  so  painfully,  but 
over  which  now  the  great  railway  hurries  us 
with  such  reckless  speed.  When  I  crossed  the 
Ohio  I  saw  the  new  and  strange  West,  the 
land  freed  for  the  development  of  republican 
equality.  Gone  were  the  smooth  and  open 
lands,  the  aristocratic  old  mansions  and  the 
swarm  of  slaves  to  which  I  had  been  accus 
tomed  in  Maryland  and  Virginia.  The  skele 
tons  of  the  forest,  bland  and  barkless,  stood 
amid  growing  wheat  and  corn;  the  houses 
were  small  frame  buildings,  with  red  gables 
and  red  sides,  perched  on  the  tops  of  hills, 
whence  every  tree  was  cleaned,  and  every  hori 
zon  was  a  forest  and  every  house  solitary. 

But  I  was  pleased  "with  the  general  ap 
pearance  of  the  country,  and  especially  with 
the  houses,  the  appearance  of  which  was  bet 
ter  than  the  country  houses  of  those  parts  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  through  which  I 
passed." 


22         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

I  arrived  at  Gambler  on  the  28th  of  October, 
1833,  in  a  snowstorm,  the  ground  frozen  wher 
ever  it  was  bared  by  the  wind — after  having 
broken  down  four  stages,  and  one  of  them 
four  times,  on  the  horrible  roads  and  come 
many  times  in  great  danger  of  being  tumbled 
over. 

Kenyon  was  then  the  centre  of  vast  forests, 
broken  only  by  occasional  clearings,  excepting 
along  the  lines  of  chief  transit — the  National 
road  and  the  Ohio  river  and  its  navigable  trib 
utaries.  The  main  college  building  was  large 
and  solidly  built,  so  solidly  that  it  was  singu 
larly  enough  looked  on  with  jealousy  by  the 
"natives"  of  the  neighborhood,  to  whom  its  be 
ing  built  with  "British"  money  suggested  the 
suspicion  that  it  was  a  "British"  fort  disguised 
as  a  college. 

Everything  but  the  college  itself  was  of  the 
most  primitive  and  temporary  character.  All 
buildings  were  of  wood  unseasoned. 

The  great  avenue  was  unimproved  and  with 
out  even  planks  or  elevated  paths,  and  when 
the  ground  was  not  frozen  in  the  winter  that 
Western  soil  was  worked  into  mud  so  deep 
that  it  was  "an  every-day  occurrence  to  see 
thirty  or  forty  or  fifty  students  strung  single 
file  on  the  top  of  the  fence  going  to  their 
meals." 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  23 

My  room  was  in  the  seventy-four — a  vast 
factory-like  building  for  the  younger  boys' 
dormitory  and  recitation  rooms.  The  green 
planks  had  parted  company,  and  through  the 
long  seams  not  only  wind  but  light  penetrated. 
It  was  like  camping  out.  The  snow  drifted 
straight  through,  covered  the  bed  and  made 
drifts  on  the  floor.  No  fire  would  keep  the 
room  warm;  our  blankets  were  hung  round 
the  fireplace  to  break  the  force  of  the  wind, 
and  vast  piles  of  wood  blazed  in  perpetual 
sacrifice  to  the  cold  god  who  would  not  be  ap 
peased.  The  wood  was  brought  by  the  coun 
try  people,  and  cost  us  little  but  the  labor  of 
cutting  it  ourselves.  For  servants  were  an  un 
known  luxury,  and  we  cleaned  our  own  rooms, 
made  our  own  beds,  blacked  our  own  shoes 
and  cut  and  brought  in  our  own  wood  and 
made  our  own  fires — when  by  accident  they 
went  out.  Such  a  life  was  healthy,  and  to 
young  men  of  sixteen  not  unpleasant.  We 
were  proof  against  every  form  of  exposure. 
My  cloak  hung  untouched  for  four  years  on 
the  wall.  One  night,  cold,  clear,  the  moon 
glittering  on  the  snow,  some  outlaws  from  the 
college  invaded  our  department,  threw  up  our 
windows  and  covered  us  with  a  shower  of 
snowballs,  a  challenge  to  combat  when  we 
were  undressed  for  bed.  We  instantly  sallied 
forth  just  as  we  were,  in  shirts  and  drawers, 


24         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

into  the  deep  snow,  had  a  battle  royal,  cleared 
our  territory  of  the  invaders  and  went  to  bed 
in  a  glow,  none  the  worse  for  the  midnight 
campaign  in  dishabille. 

It  was  the  day  of  self-supporting  or  manual 
labor  schools,  by  which  the  difference  between 
learning  and  labor,  the  mechanic  and  the  stu 
dent  was  to  be  obliterated;  when  labor  was 
not  to  exhaust,  but  only  to  sharpen  the  appe 
tite  for  letters,  and  the  wearied  form  was  to 
find  rest  in  the  assertion  of  the  independence 
of  the  mind  on  matter. 

I  with  others  were  instructed  from  home  by 
my  father,  by  my  mother  and  by  my  aunt,  to 
engage  in  the  pleasant  task  of  cleaning  and 
grubbing  certain  acres  of  new  land  for — noth 
ing  a  day;  and  not  a  few  hours  of  exhaustion 
were  spent  in  testing  thus  fully  of  this  new 
theory  of  leveling  the  inequalities  of  God.  Of 
course,  it  failed,  and  was  everywhere  aban 
doned,  for  it  was  erecting  into  a  rule  the  he 
roic  success  of  a  few  rare  and  indomitable 
spirits  who,  under  the  spur  of  ambition  and 
poverty,  did  what  the  mass  of  students  neither 
poor  nor  ambitious  did  not  care  to  attempt  and 
could  not  be  compelled  needlessly  to  accom 
plish.  I  lost  some  hours  of  pleasure,  a  few  of 
study  and  strengthened  a  constitution  already 
strong  enough! 

My  first  year  in  the  preparatory  department 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  25 

was  spent  in  these  exercises,  occasional  gun 
ning  contrary  to  law — repealed  by  the  com 
mon  law  of  the  West,  whose  Solon  was  Nim- 
rod  or  Boone;  and  in  the  studies  necessary  to 
secure  my  entrance  to  the  freshman  class  next 
year.  Lessons  beyond  those  of  my  class  were 
exacted  of  me.  My  time  seems  to  have  been 
well  employed.  The  most  important  work 
of  the  year  was  the  translation  of  the  whole 
of  Sallust's  "Bellum  Catilinarium,"  a  work 
which  was  much  more  a  lesson  in  English 
writing  than  in  Latin  construction  and  tended 
more  than  anything  could  have  done  to  fix  the 
habit  of  brief,  sincere  and  pointed  expression. 
When  completed  it  was  sent  home  to  attest  my 
industry  and  progress. 

I  joined  the  Philalethic  Society  of  the  pre 
paratory  department. 

There  were  two  societies,  divided  between 
the  Northern  and  Southern  students.  For  this 
was  in  1833 ;  the  first  attempt  of  the  negro  and 
cotton  interest  to  defy  the  United  States  was 
in  1830,  and  the  agitation  had  only  just  been 
suppressed  by  the  firmness  of  President  Jack 
son  and  the  conciliatory  tariff  bill  of  Mr. 
Clay;  but  the  division  of  feeling  survived, 
and  in  the  backwoods  among  youths  at  college 
secession  was  effected  in  their  societies,  a 
prophecy  ignorantly  made  of  things  to  come. 

The  one  society  of  the  preparatory  depart- 


26         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ment  had  been  divided  the  year  before  I  came 
by  the  withdrawal  of  the  Northern  students, 
and  I  joined  the  Southern  society  on  my  ar 
rival. 

I  am  amazed  to  see  what  a  bundle  of  South 
ern  prejudices  I  carried  to  college  with  me. 
Indulging  them  brought  down  on  me  the  stern 
rebuke  of  my  father. 

In  my  first  letter  to  my  mother  from  Ken- 
yon  I  said:  "The  Southern  students  I  am 
pleased  with;  the  Northern  I  am  not  much 
acquainted  with  and  have  no  desire  to  be  so." 

My  father  had  small  toleration  for  such  fol 
ly,  and  sharply  reprimanded  my  silly  preju 
dices  in  avoidingNorthern  associations,  among 
whom  the  best  students  were  to  be  found,  and 
regretted  my  joining  the  Southern  society. 

My  presumptuous  reply  will  strikingly  il 
lustrate  the  strength  of  the  virus  then  already 
poured  into  the  blood  of  Southern  youth  in 
spite  of  the  liberal  views  of  the  parents. 

"As  to  my  having  joined  the  Southern  so 
ciety,  I  cannot  possibly  conceive  where  the 
fault  lies.  I  was  from  the  South,  had  been 
born  and  bred  in  the  South,  and  why,  when 
there  was  a  Southern  society  on  the  hill,  I 
should  join  the  Northern,  I  cannot  conceive. 
You  seem  to  have  gotten  wrong  ideas  of  the 
difference  that  now  exists  between  Northern 
ers  and  Southerners.  About  a  year  since  the 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  27 

Philalethic  was  a  neutral  society,  and  on  ac 
count  of  some  disagreement  between  the  mem 
bers  the  Northerners  withdrew  from  it  and 
formed  a  society  of  Northerners.  All  persons 
coming  from  different  parts  of  the  Union  were 
expected  to  join  the  society  belonging  to  the 
part  from  which  he  comes.  The  Northerners 
would  never  have  dreamed  of  my  joining  their 
society.  Nothing  could  be  more  disagreeable 
to  me  than  to  belong  to  their  society.  Their 
manner  and  habits  are  so  different  from  what 
I  have  been  accustomed.  Because  I  have  not 
joined  the  Northern  side  is  no  reason  that  I 
should  be  at  enmity  with  them.  They  come 
to  my  room  and  I  go  to  theirs  as  frequently  as 
anywhere  else." 

The  very  germs  of  separation  inspired  me 
unconsciously.  My  father  saw  that  unity  of 
ideas  and  feelings  is  the  only  foundation  of 
national  unity,  and  strove  to  keep  me  in  the 
tight  path. 

Party  spirit  ran  high,  and  even  the  disci 
pline  of  the  faculty  was  impeached  of  partial 
ity  to  the  Northern  students. 

"The  faculty  are  nearly  all  Yankees,  and 
they  take  care  not  to  depart  from  their  Yan 
kee  principles.  They  are  very  partial  to  their 
kindred.  I  have  known  an  instance  in  which 
a  Yankee  and  Southerner  were  employed  in  a 
frolic  together.  It  was  found  out — for  they 


28         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

have  spies  everywhere.  The  Southerner  was 
brought  to  trial  to  answer  for  his  misdeeds  and 
to  pay  the  penalty  by  dismission,  while  the 
Yankee  was  permitted  to  remain  in  rest  and 
quiet." 

Such  was  the  spirit  prevailing  at  Kenyon  in 
1833  and  1834. 

On  October  29,  1834,  I  passed  my  examina 
tion  and  entered  the  freshman  class.  I  was 
promoted  to  the  college  building.  Wilmer 
Connell  was  called  home  by  his  father's  death 
and  soon  plunged  into  commercial  life  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  splendid  fortune, 
with  which  he  now  dispenses  a  liberal  hospi 
tality  at  his  country  seat  near  Philadelphia. 

My  companion  now  was  a  Mr.  Moore,  of 
Rhode  Island,  of  ambrosial  curls,  loud  voice, 
vast  vanity  and  little  head.  His  Northern 
home  had  taught  him  to  close  the  doors  which 
my  education  had  neglected  and  my  hardy  life 
in  the  Seventy-four  had  taught  me  to  despise, 
till  Moore  broke  me  into  civilized  habits  by 
calling  me  from  the  first  to  the  third  floor  as 
if  for  something  urgent,  and  then  pointing  to 
the  open  door,  dismissed  me  with  the  lesson. 

I  pardon  him  for  this  and  everything  else 
except  his  allowing  me  to  sleep  through  the 
grand  phenomenon  of  the  uFalling  Stars"  of 
1834,  which  to  susceptible  minds  seemed  the 
very  emblem  of  the  last  day,  while  he  with  all 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  29 

the  rest  of  the  college  watched  those  strange 
fires  till  they  ceased  to  shower. 

What  punishment  is  equal  to  such  conduct? 

As  the  sphere  of  study  expanded  the  sub 
jects  of  interest  increased.  Natural  science, 
political  economy,  logic,  metaphysics  as  then 
understood  in  the  United  States  and  England 
—that  is  to  say,  psychology  on  the  basis  of 
Reid,  Stewart  and  Brown — avoiding  the  deep 
problems  of  real  metaphysical  science,  the 
possibility  of  external  knowledge,  the  concep 
tion  of  the  infinite  and  the  absolute,  the  vindi 
cation  of  the  ways  of  God  to  man,  or  a  the 
odicy  unless  Butler's  Analogy  be  considered  to 
touch  that  problem  in  some  of  its  relations- 
were  seized  on  and  prosecuted  with  a  zest  that 
attested  the  natural  bent  of  my  mind.  The 
foundations  for  future  building  were  laid. 

But  the  fruitful  fields  of  exploration  were 
those  on  either  side  of  the  narrow  highway  of 
the  prescribed  march. 

While  a  boy  of  ten  or  eleven  I  had  become 
familiar  with  the  classics  of  Addison,  Johnson 
and  Swift,  Cowper  and  Pope  and  Robertson. 

I  now  plunged  into  the  current  of  History. 
It  was  the  transition  period  from  the  shallow 
though  graceful  pages  of  Gillies  and  Rollins, 
Russell  and  Tytler,  and  the  rabbinical  ag 
glomeration  of  Shuckford  and  Prideaux,  to 
the  modern  school  of  free,  profound  and  pow- 


30         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

erful  investigation  which  has  reared  immortal 
monuments  to  its  memory  in  Hallam,  Ma- 
caulay,  Grote,  Bancroft,  Motley,  Niebuhr, 
Bunsen,  Schlosser  and  Thiers  and  their  fol 
lowers. 

But  of  these  great  works  none  but  Niebuhr's 
History  of  Rome,  Hallam,  were  then  in  evi 
dence  or  known  in  the  backwoods  of  Ohio. 
Cousin's  History  of  the  Philosophy  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  was  just  glittering  on  the 
horizon.  Gibbon  shone  alone  as  the  morning 
star  of  historic  investigation,  which  he  had 
heralded  for  so  long  and  which  was  then 
breaking. 

With  the  materials  I  did  the  best  I  could. 
But  only  think  of  seeing  the  French  Revolu 
tion  only  in  the  pages  of  Burke's  brilliant  vi 
tuperation  and  Scott's  Tory  diatribe!  A  re 
publican  picture  of  the  great  republican  revo 
lution,  the  formation  of  all  that  is  now  toler 
able  in  Europe,  did  not  exist  or  was  not  acces 
sible  in  any  authentic  and  comprehensive 
page,  and  Americans  were  fed  on  the  foam  of 
English  fury  and  taught  to  hate  Jacobins  and 
revolutionists  as  if  it  were  not  they  who  forced 
our  principles  on  aristocracies  which  hated  us, 
avenged  in  blood  the  blood  of  ages,  and  did 
to  their  enemies  what  their  enemies  had  done 
to  their  fathers  through  long  centuries  and 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  31 

would  have  done  to  them  had  they  not  been 
anticipated. 

So  that  my  reading  had  to  be  in  great  meas 
ure  unread  in  more  mature  days  and  with 
ampler  resources. 

But  I  imbibed  the  nourishment  before  me, 
was  conservative,  aristocratic,  English  in 
thought  and  view  as  much  as  one  can  be  who 
lives  in  the  woods  and  at  the  antipodes  of 
everything  English — a  democrat  in  fact,  an 
aristocrat  in  word — a  contradiction  which 
Southern  origin  and  education  tended  to  de 
velop  and  conceal. 

The  English  origin  of  the  college,  its  church 
spirit  and  character  and  the  admiration  of  the 
bishop  for  English  forms,  led  to  an  attempt 
to  naturalize  the  students'  Oxford  caps  and 
gowns  at  Kenyon,  but  the  gown  was  not  a  con 
venient  garment  to  chop  wood  in,  the  silk  tas 
sel  of  the  cap  would  make  love  to  the  boughs 
of  the  forest,  its  hard  flat  top  rocked  to  and 
fro  like  a  drunken  man  in  every  gust,  and  the 
impatient  sons  of  the  West  were  undergoing 
perpetual  metamorphosis  from  a  gownsman 
into  a  Buckeye  in  shirt  sleeves — till  the  effort 
was  abandoned  as  against  the  nature  of  the 
Western  man. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  a  change  in  the 
college  term  gave  me  a  vacation  of  three 
months. 


32         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

I  spent  all  my  vacations  at  college — for  the 
distance  from  home  forbade  a  visit,  and  I 
availed  myself  of  the  time  which  must  be  idle 
or  filled  with  study  to  pursue  and  complete  the 
studies  of  the  Sophomore  year,  which  was 
ahead,  to  which  I  had  already  devoted  myself 
during  the  Freshman  year;  and  at  the  opening 
of  the  next  session  I  passed  the  examination 
for  the  Junior  class. 

It  was  a  pretty  sharp  trial  of  resolution  and 
dogged  diligence,  but  it  saved  me  a  year  at  col 
lege,  indurated  my  powers  of  study  and  men 
tal  labor  into  a  habit,  and  perhaps  enabled  me 
to  stay  long  enough  to  graduate.  I  do  not 
recommend  the  example  to  those  more  inde 
pendently  situated,  for  learning  must  fall  like 
the  rain  in  such  gentle  showers  as  to  sink  in  if 
it  is  to  be  fruitful,  and  when  poured  on  the 
richest  soil  in  torrents  it  not  only  runs  off  with 
out  strengthening  vegetation,  but  washes  away 
the  soil  itself. 

The  residue  of  my  college  life  was  more 
fruitful  than  its  beginning. 

The  regular  studies  were  respectably  prose 
cuted  and  have  not  been  wholly  without  fruit, 
not  merely  in  knowledge,  but  what  is  of  vastly 
more  account,  the  habit  and  power  of  mental 
labor.1 

These  studies  were  wrought  into  my  mind, 
made  part  of  the  intellectual  substance  by  the 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  33 

vigorous  collisions  of  the  societies  in  which  I 
delighted.  The  questions  propounded  for  de 
bate  were  assigned  to  two  or  four  chief  dis 
putants,  heard  judicially  by  the  president,2 
before  the  faculty,  thrown  then  open  for  the 
melee  of  general  discussion,  and  finally  the  ar 
guments  were  summed  up  and  the  decision 
pronounced  with  appropriate  and  authorita 
tive  criticisms  on  manner  and  matter  by  the 
president. 

For  these  mimic  conflicts  I  prepared  assid 
uously — not  ever  in  writing,  but  always  with 
a  carefully  deduced  logical  analysis  and  ar 
rangement  of  the  ideas  to  be  developed  in  the 
order  of  argument,  with  a  brief  note  of  any 
quotation  or  image  or  illustration  on  the  mar 
gin  at  the  appointed  place.  From  that  brief  I 
spoke. 

The  societies  were  two — the  N.  P.  K.  (Nu 
Pi  Kappa)  and  the  Philomathesian,  organized 
in  1832  or  1833,  under  the  inspiration  which 
divided  the  societies  of  the  preparatory  de 
partment,  on  the  basis  of  the  residence  of  stu 
dents.  This  was  instigated  by  and  cultivated 
an  exclusive  spirit,  social  and  political,  which 
had  just  threatened  to  kindle  and  has  since 
burst  into  civil  war. 

I  belonged  to  the  N.  P.  K,  the  Southern 
society.  The  other  was  the  more  numerous, 
equally  able  in  intellect,  but  different  in  tone 


34         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

and  composition.  The  former  affected  aristoc 
racy;  the  latter  the  steady  level  of  Northern 
society.  Occasionally  gentlemen  crossed  the 
line  in  choosing  their  society. 

The  most  brilliant  of  my  college  friends, 
Howard  Smith,  was  of  the  number — and  from 
Pennsylvania,  yet  was  in  the  N.  P.  K.  But 
this  was  exceptional. 

The  negro  question  was  an  element  of  divi 
sion,  but  not  bitter  nor  exciting.  The  societies 
were  rivals,  not  foes,  and  associations  followed 
predilection  and  not  origin. 

But  the  diversity  of  feeling  lay  there,  only 
awaiting  the  day  of  development.  Among  the 
gentlemen  of  brilliant  promise — not  always 
redeemed  in  after  life — were  William  Smei- 
der,  of  Kentucky,  long  since  a  distinguished 
lawyer  of  Mississippi;  F.  K.  Hunt,  of  Ken 
tucky,  famous  for  his  brilliant  and  genial  dec 
lamation;  Horace  Smith,  of  infinite  jest,  since 
consul  at  Lisbon;  Stephen  Griffith  Gassoway, 
of  Ohio,  and  William  F.  Giles,  of  Mississippi, 
my  most  valued  and  devoted  friends,  who 
have  been  snatched  from  life  in  the  midst  of 
careers  full  of  great  promise,  were  all  mem 
bers  of  my  class  when  I  entered  the  Junior 
year,  and  with  such  it  was  a  privilege  to  have 
been  associated. 

They  were  all  richly  endowed  by  nature,  of 
the  highest  moral  tone,  cultivated  vastly  be- 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  35 

yond  the  beaten  track  of  study.  Gassoway  was 
a  poet,  a  writer  of  great  ease  and  facility,  a 
preternatural  power  of  acquiring, glossed  over 
with  a  harmless  and  amusing  vanity,  which 
should  rather  be  termed  a  just  appreciation  of 
his  powers  which  he  did  not  care  to  conceal 
from  his  friends,  but  hounded  by  the  ambition 
to  be  an  orator,  for  which  he  had  not  one 
single  qualification. 

Giles  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  the 
most  varied  and  rare  information,  recondite, 
curious,  dusty  and  musty.  If  he  rolled  him 
self  over  in  the  dust  of  a  library,  his  ever-dear 
delight,  knowledge,  stuck  to  him  like  iron  fil 
ings  round  a  magnet,  and  his  rare  and  antique 
humor  procured  him  the  name  of  Monk- 
barnes.  Both  sought  the  ministry,  were  emi 
nent  in  their  studies,  but  died  too  early  to  do 
anything  but  make  people  deplore  the  loss  of 
so  much  promise. 

I  have  not  met  their  like  since.  Perhaps  we 
never  do  replace  the  bosom  friends  of  college 
life. 

The  authorities  of  Kenyon  were  men  of 
mark. 

Professor  Bache  in  chemistry,3  Professor 
Buckingham4  in  mathematics,  Dr.  Sparrow5 
in  moral  science,  were  men  who  would  have 
graced  any  university  of  Europe. 


36         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Dr.  Sparrow  was  a  great  favorite  with  the 
students  in  the  pulpit  because  of  his  clear 
logic,  his  profound  thought  and  his  singularly 
rich  and  striking  imagery.  Wholly  without 
manner  or  action,  except  an  occasional  con 
vulsive  throwing  forth  of  the  arm  to  point 
some  pointed  sentence,  with  no  gift  of  voice 
to  attract,  his  earnest  reading,  with  his  eye  on 
his  manuscript  unless  when  emphatically  lift 
ed  or  if  to  force  his  words  into  his  hearers,  al 
ways  riveted  attention,  even  in  the  most 
thoughtless  and  suppressed  the  restless  weari 
ness  of  students  doing  a  duty  which  they 
wished  at  an  end. 

Alas,  that  a  residence  in  Virginia  should 
have  bent  his  stern  principles  of  morals  to  the 
necessary  deflection  for  the  apology  of  slavery 
and  the  rebellion  for  its  maintenance. 

Bishop  Mcllvain  was  a  different  man  in 
mind  and  style. 

Dr.  Sparrow  was  a  recluse  and  a  student; 
the  Bishop  was  a  man  of  the  world  as  well  as 
a  man  of  God — but  not  a  man  of  the  Western 
world  of  that:  day. 

He  was  bred  in  the  refinements  of  New 
Jersey,  was  versed  in  the  society  of  Washing 
ton  when  Adams,  Webster,  Clay  and  Calhoun 
shone  there,  had  been  long  enough  at  West 
Point  as  chaplain  to  be  imbued  with  its  ideas 
and  habits  of  authority  and  subordination. 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  37 

From  these  scenes  he  was  transported  to  the 
wild  woods,  rough,  free,  uncultivated,  self- 
dependent  people  of  the  West,  over  whom  he 
was  to  be  a  bishop,  and  at  the  head  of  a  col 
lege  which  must  conciliate  their  confidence  if 
it  were  to  flourish.  His  manner  and  refine 
ment  were  not  helps,  but  hindrances.  Though 
affable,  kind,  devoted,  indefatigable,  of  the 
fine  class  of  minds  and  of  wonderful  oratori 
cal  power,  he  looked  and  felt  too  much  above 
the  average  level,  was  too  different  from  his 
flock  and  too  little  able  to  assimilate  himself 
to  them,  in  apostolic  phrase  to  be  all  things  to 
all  men — to  be  as  Bishop  Chase  had  been,  to 
acquire  a  leadership  over  them — and  this  he 
never  did  acquire. 

But  at  the  college  this  great  and  brilliant 
example  of  a  Christian  gentleman,  who  was  a 
bishop  without  being  a  bore  or  a  puritan,  who 
set  the  example  by  his  life  of  what  the  highest 
style  of  manner  was,  and  what  dignity  and 
elevation  in  character  produced  in  appear 
ance  and  bearing  and  conduct,  was  of  infinite 
use  in  breeding  gentlemen  out  of  the  rough 
material  there  collected,  which  professors  who 
were  merely  scholars  might  shape  and  sharp 
en,  but  could  never  polish  or  decorate. 

He  was  a  master  of  the  highest  art  of  ora 
tory.  To  listen  to  him  on  Sunday  was  a  les 
son  in  oratory  which  could  be  had  nowhere 


38         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

else  in  the  United  States,  unless  at  the  feet  of 
Webster  or  Clay,  nor  abroad,  but  from  the 
voice  of  Brougham.  He  spoke  without  a 
manuscript,  except  on  the  rarest  occasions  or 
on  the  most  abstruse  topics.  His  style  was 
clear,  simple,  masterful,  but  abounding  in  rich 
imagery,  too  rich  for  any  place  but  the  pulpit, 
but  never  overdone  nor  superabundant.  His 
person  was  elegant  and  graceful.  His  pale 
face  and  forehead,  so  bald  as  to  show  the  clear 
and  noble  outline  of  the  head,  but  not  so  much 
as  to  disfigure. 

His  action  spoke  to  the  eye  what  his  words 
carried  to  the  mind — not  pantomime,  but  pre- 
sentative  action;  not  vehement,  but  earnest; 
not  of  the  forum,  but  of  the  pulpit.  His  voice 
was  the  clearest,  the  fullest,  ringing  without  a 
particle  of  sharpness,  filling  the  whole  house, 
yet  not  drowning  itself  in  its  own  reverbera 
tions,  but  the  very  impersonation  of  sound 
which  filled  the  whole  house  and  was  every 
where  present,  but  proceeded  from  nowhere. 
It  descended  on  you  as  if  from  heaven.  It  was 
a  voice  I  never  heard  equaled  but  by  Mr. 
Clay's.  Within  a  few  days,  after  thirty  years, 
I  have  had  the  privilege  of  having  him  under 
my  roof  and  hearing  him  speak,  and  time  has 
made  no  inroad  on  either  his  person  or  his 
voice. 

To  have  sat  under  him  for  four  years  is  a 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  39 

great  and  rare  privilege,  which  has  not  been 
among  the  least  fruitful  of  my  intellectual 
trainings. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  mention  that 
during  his  visit  to  me  lately  he  remarked  that 
both  Jefferson  Davis  and  Robert  Lee  were  at 
West  Point  during  his  chaplaincy;  I  said  that 
was  a  serious  impeachment  of  his  ministry. 
He  replied:  "Hardly  so  in  regard  to  Jefferson 
Davis,  for  he  was  so  low  in  his  classes  that  he 
never  reached  that  section  which  was  under 
my  instruction." 

The  current  of  college  life  was  undisturbed 
by  any  great  excitements.  The  threat  of  colli 
sion  between  Ohio  and  Michigan  on  a  question 
of  boundary  waked  feeling  enough  to  ruffle  our 
calmness,  but  the  United  States  beneficently 
thrust  the  sword  between  the  combatants,  gave 
Ohio  the  cause  of  war  and  indemnified  Mich 
igan  with  the  vast  peninsula  which  doubled 
her  territory  and  wealth  and  took  nothing 
from  anybody,  and  we  all  smiled  again. 

The  contest  between  Van  Buren  and  Har 
rison  was  loud  and  angry  enough  to  find  an 
echo  in  our  halls-premonitory  of  the  struggle 
of  1840,  which  was  closed  by  the  rebellion. 
The  students  of  higher  grade  were  enlisted  on 
either  side  rather  by  prejudice  than  knowl 
edge;  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  confess  that  my 
lofty  and  impractical  notions  of  what  a  Presi- 


40         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

dent  ought  to  be  in  point  of  capacity  was  near 
making  me  balance  the  weak  incapacity  of 
Harrison  against  my  distrust  of  all  Democrats 
—the  only  weakness  of  my  life  in  that  re 
spect — and  it  was  this  first  conflict  of  Harri 
son  and  Van  Buren  which  imprinted  on  my 
memory  the  growing  disgust  for  Abolitionists 
which  then  began  to  take  the  place  of  old  and 
universal  sympathy  for  emancipation. 

But  these  were  transitory  ripples  caused  by 
the  passage  of  the  great  storm. 

Amid  it  all  I  worked  on  at  my  metaphysics 
and  morals,  varied  by  a  spell  on  the  public 
roads  of  Ohio  under  its  laws,  and  dreamed  of 
the  world  without  to  the  close  of  my  career. 

On  the  6th  of  September,  1837,  at  twenty 
years  of  age,  I  took  my  degree  and  diploma, 
decorated  with  one  of  the  honorary  orations 
of  my  class  on  the  great  day  of  Commence 
ment. 

The  world  was  all  before  me  where  to 
choose  and  Providence  my  guide. 

My  father's  death  had  embittered  the  last 
days  of  the  year  1836  and  left  me  without  a 
counsellor.  I  knew  something  of  books,  but 
nothing  of  men,  and  I  went  forth  like  Adam 
among  the  wild  beasts  of  the  unknown  wilder 
ness  of  the  world. 

My  father  had  dedicated  me  to  the  minis- 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  41 

try,  but  the  day  was  gone  when  such  dedica 
tions  determined  the  life  of  young  men. 

Theology  as  a  grave  topic  of  historic  and 
metaphysical  investigation  I  delighted  to  pur 
sue,  but  for  the  ministry  I  had  no  calling. 

I  would  have  been  idle  if  I  could,  for  I  had 
no  ambition,  and  my  mother  had  deeply  and 
often  impressed  on  me  the  sentiment  that  a 
private  Christian  gentleman  was  the  most  dig 
nified  and  independent  character. 

But  I  had  no  fortune  and  I  could  not  beg  or 
starve. 

Under  this  irrational  instigation,  which  I 
was  long  in  getting  rid  of,  I  dedicated  myself 
to  the  law. 

I  returned  to  the  East  by  way  of  Romney, 
met  the  first  locomotive  on  the  track  at  Win 
chester,  and  behind  it  went  to  Charlestown, 
Jefferson  county,  Va.,  where  I  spent  some  days 
at  the  grand  mansion  of  Bushrod  Washington. 
I  fear  my  scholastic  airs  made  a  singular  con 
trast  with  the  habits  of  the  landed  gentry  of 
that  connection  whom  I  there  met,  into  whose 
talk  of  oxen  and  houses  I  was  foolish  enough 
not  to  enter,  while  I  gloried  in  the  fine  man 
sions  and  broad  acres  which  inspired  and  sup 
ported  it  as  if  the  two  things  were  separable. 

For  all  forms  of  mercantile  pursuits  I  had 
no  taste  and  great  disgust.  I  was  the  subject 
of  the  prejudices  of  my  State  and  time,  and, 


42         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

strange  as  it  may  seem  now,  it  was  then  a  pre 
vailing  sentiment  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
that  trade  was  not  suited  for  a  gentleman  who 
could  follow  nothing  but  farming  or  one  of 
the  learned  professions  without  something  of 
disparagement. 

Great  gains  relaxed  the  rigor  of  the  rule, 
but  still  it  was  the  rule,  and  when  in  18^0  I 
came  to  Baltimore  to  reside,  so  enlightened  a 
gentleman  as  Robert  E.  Scott,  of  Fauquier,6 
once  asked  if  the  Baltimoreans  were  not  all 
shopkeepers — if  there  were  any  aristocratic 
gentlemen  there!! 

When  I  left  college  my  father  was  dead,  his 
estate  deeply  in  debt,  his  negroes  bound  out 
to  save  them  from  sale  till  their  labor  could 
liberate  them,  and  myself  and  my  sister  in  the 
meantime  in  the  most  straitened  circum 
stances,  which  our  aunt's  kindness  could  only 
partially  relieve. 

I  sought  a  tutorship,  and  for  two  years  ded 
icated  the  time  relieved  from  its  drudgery  to 
law  and  letters. 

With  an  eye  on  the  University  of  Virginia, 
I  read  nearly  its  whole  course,  and  refreshed 
myself  with  the  pungent  and  fragrant  pages  of 
Tacitus  "Histories"  and  the  glowing  and  bril 
liant,  dignified  and  elevated  epic  of  the  De 
cline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  I  exer 
cised  myself  in  translations  from  the  former, 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  43 

and  in  transferring  the  thoughts  and  images 
of  passages  of  the  latter  into  my  own  language. 
The  latter  task  dispelled  the  popular  error 
that  Gibbon's  style  is  swollen  and  declama 
tory,  for  every  effort  at  condensation  proved  a 
failure,  and  at  the  end  of  my  labors  the  page 
I  had  been  foolish  enough  to  attempt  to  com 
press  had  expanded  to  the  eye  when  released 
from  the  weighty  and  stringent  fetters  in 
which  the  gigantic  genius  of  Gibbons  had 
bound  the  thought. 

The  experiment  was  instructive  and  useful, 
though  a  failure. 

Under  this  pecuniary  pressure  the  strength 
of  my  old-fashioned  feelings  towards  slavery 
was  subjected  a  severe  shock. 

The  sale  of  my  share  of  the  slaves  would  in 
stantly  have  placed  me  in  funds  to  pursue  my 
studies  at  the  University  and  borne  me  over 
the  dead  point  of  the  machinery  of  the  law  at 
a  beginning  career. 

In  reply  to  an  offer  of  a  connection  of  the 
family  to  purchase  the  slaves,  my  feelings 
were  in  April,  1839,  expressed  thus: 

"Mr  DEAR  AUNT:  I  received  a  letter  at 
last  from  the  Doctor  (Dr.  Davis)  several  days 
since.  He  mentioned  that  Captain  J.  Allen 
stated  that  he  would  purchase  Sally  if  I  had 
no  objection.  I  am  not  certain  whether  Sally 
was  set  to  my  share  in  the  division  made  by 


44         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  Doctor  and  have  not  a  list  with  me  from 
which  I  can  satisfy  myself.  I  wish  Jane  would 
consult  the  memorandum  she  has,  and  if  it 
should  happen  that  Sally  does  belong  to  me, 
let  me  know.  If  she  is  the  property  of  Jane, 
of  course  I  shall  make  no  objection  in  charac 
ter  of  administrator  even  if  it  is  within  my 
power  to  do  so.  But  if  she  is  under  my  con 
trol  I  will  not  consent  to  the  sale,  though  he 
wishes  to  purchase  her  subject  to  the  will" 
(i.  e.,  to  be  free  if  she  would  go  to  Liberia). 

I  have  still,  now  lying  before  me  a  brief 
demonstration  of  the  impossibility  of  heredi 
tary  slavery  on  any  moral  ground,  written  just 
before  this  letter  in  1838,  in  the  midst  of  Vir 
ginia  slaveholders,  when  a  doubt  was  damna 
tion,  political  and  social! 

While  waiting  the  opportunity  of  going  to  a 
law  school  I  had  a  very  advantageous  offer 
from  a  gentleman  in  Mississippi,  and  I  was 
about  to  accept  it,  but  the  final  letters  were  de 
layed  and  I  remained  in  Virginia.  It  is  singu 
lar  now  to  see  from  my  letters,  intimating  a 
thought  of  going  to  Mississippi,  what  a  cry  of 
horror  it  extorted  from  my  pious  aunt,  and  it 
illustrates  what  is  now  almost  inconceivable, 
what  a  sink  of  iniquity,  what  a  broad  road  to 
destruction  that  region  was  then  considered. 

Finally  my  aunt  sold  some  land  in  1839  and 
dedicated  the  funds  to  my  legal  studies. 


CHAPTER  11—1833-1839  45 

The  relative  advantages  of  private  and  uni 
versity  study  were  largely  and  anxiously  de 
bated  in  my  letters,  and  I  maintained  the  lat 
ter  with  vigor  and  success. 

The  superiority  of  the  Virginia,  the  Massa 
chusetts  or  the  Connecticut  school  was  then 
considered  and  decided — not  so  wisely — in  fa 
vor  of  the  University  of  Virginia. 

Aided  by  my  aunt's  munificence,  the  same 
love  which  began  my  infantile  education, 
which  bore  me  through  college  and  which  so 
many  of  my  most  costly  books  still  attest,  I  ar 
rived  at  the  University  of  Virginia  in  Octo 
ber,  1839. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  II. 

1.  Rt.  Rev.  Philander  Chase  (1775-1852),  uncle  of  Chief  Jus 
tice  Salmon  P.  Chase. 

2.  Rt.  Rev.  Charles  Pettit  Mcllwaine    (1798-1873). 

3.  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache   (1801-1881). 

4.  Catharinus  Putnam  Buckingham  (1808-1888). 

5.  William  Sparrow   (1801-1874). 

6.  Robert  Eden  Scott  (1808-1862). 

7.  The  schools  of  Harvard  and  of  Yale. 


46         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   VIRGINIA 

(1839-40). 

The  University  of  Virginia  is  divided  into 
schools  in  each  of  which  a  separate  diploma 
is  awarded,  but  bound  together  by  a  common 
government  into  the  University.  Its  schools 
did  not  in  1839  at  all  complete  the  cycle  of 
sciences  or  departments  of  human  learning. 
The  Schools  of  the  Greek,  Latin,  of  the  Mod 
ern  Languages,  of  Mathematics,  of  Physics  or 
Natural  Science,  of  Chemistry,  of  Law  and  of 
Moral  Philosophy  were,  I  believe,  all  that 
then  existed. 

The  Classical  School  was  under  a  plodding 
pedant,  Gesner  Harrison;1  that  of  the  Modern 
Languages  under  a  polyglot  German2  smell 
ing  of  assafoetida,  who  was  shortly  after  my 
day  expelled  for  whipping  his  wife,  and  his 
varied  knowledge  being  united  in  no  one,  sev 
eral  professors  discharged  his  functions.  When 
some  one  complimented  him  on  this  tribute  to 
his  learning,  he  replied :  "Ah,  yes,  it  takes  a 
great  many  fips  to  make  a  thaler!" 

Under  him  I  got  a  smattering  of  French 
and  German,  with  a  compound  pronunciation 
of  both. 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          47 

Professor  Rogers3  gave  a  national  charac 
ter  to  the  School  of  Natural  Philosophy  and 
Geology,  and  I  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  at 
tending  and  profiting  by  his  eloquent  and 
original  lectures  during  the  brief  course. 

Professor  Bonnycastle  4  raised  the  School  of 
Mathematics  to  deserved  celebrity  and  en 
riched  it  by  his  contributions  to  mathematical 
investigation. 

Moral  Philosophy  was  taught  and  made 
ridiculous  by  Professor  Tucker,5  who  stuck  in 
the  outer  bark  of  English  and  Scotch  Mental 
Philosophy,  gave  his  students  the  vertigo  by 
the  narrow  circle  in  which  he  revolved,  and 
tried  to  enliven  his  disquisition  by  stale  tradi 
tionary  jokes  and  stories,  which  descended 
from  class  to  class  and  year  to  year  like  intel 
lectual  heirlooms  of  the  school. 

His  work  on  the  Progress  of  the  United 
States  in  Wealth  and  Population  in  fifty  years 
is,  however,  a  most  valuable  and  meritorious 
summary  of  national  progress  and  the  first 
scientific  effort  to  make  statistics  luminous  in 
this  country. 

Professor  Davis 6  presided  over  the  Law 
School — a  most  amiable  and  excellent  gen 
tleman,  but  one  wholly  without  experience  as 
a  lawyer  and  wholly  incompetent  to  deal  with 
the  high  and  abstract  principles  of  judicial 
science. 


48         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

His  lectures  were  little  besides  readings  on 
the  Virginia  Statutes  and  their  construction 
by  the  Virginia  Court  of  Appeals.  He  did 
attempt  to  illustrate  the  law  of  tenures  as  mod 
ified  by  Virginia  law,  but  the  pamphlet  was 
wholly  unintelligible  in  theory  and  worthless 
in  practice — the  despair  and  agony  of  succes 
sive  generations  of  students — which,  if  not  un 
derstood,  must  be  memorized  at  the  peril  of 
losing  a  diploma. 

The  University  Buildings  consisted  of  a 
miniature  of  the  Pantheon  of  Agrippa  at  the 
head  of  a  broad  lawn,  on  either  side  of  which 
were  two  rows  of  dormitories,  after  the  fash 
ion  of  negro  cabins,  broken  at  regular  inter 
vals  by  the  professors'  houses,  which  rose 
above  them — all  of  substantial  brick  and  gen 
erally  kept  in  good  order. 

The  lecture  room  and  library  occupied  the 
Pantheon,  or  rotunda. 

The  genius  of  the  institution  looked  down 
on  it  from  Monticello — the  Holy  Mount — the 
residence  of  the  founder  of  the  University  and 
the  fountain  of  its  inspiration,  moral  and  po 
litical. 

In  striking  contrast  with  Kenyon,  here  no 
sectarian,  no  religious  bias  or  basis  was  recog 
nized. 

The  University  employed  no  chaplain;  no 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          49 

prayers  opened  the  day;  no  service  was  en 
acted  on  Sunday. 

Still  the  students  employed  and  paid  by  vol 
untary  contributions  a  chaplain,  who  was 
chosen  from  year  to  year,  in  concurrence  with 
the  authorities,  and  the  services  were  respect 
ably  and  respectfully  attended  by  the  general 
mass  of  the  students.  The  theory  of  Jefferson 
remained — the  practice  of  a  more  believing 
age  prevailed  over  it. 

But  Jefferson's  political  ideas  permeated 
the  whole  body  of  the  students  and  infected 
the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  slave  States — not 
without  an  element  of  strong  antagonism,  but 
one  never  strong  enough  to  throw  off  the  moral 
malaria. 

It  is  among  the  singular  anomalies  of  his 
tory  that  the  devotees  of  Jefferson's  political 
theories  of  State's  rights  and  constitutional 
construction  were  the  most  violent  opponents 
of  his  views  on  slavery  and  the  rights  of  man 
in  the  negro. 

I  was  soon  sensible  of  a  great  difference  be 
tween  the  sentiment  of  the  mass  of  the  students 
and  that  of  Maryland  in  my  boyhood;  per 
haps  my  Ohio  residence  made  me  more  sensi 
tive  to  the  slightest  change  of  temperature. 

I  remember  being  rather  disgusted  by  the 
change  from  Maryland  to  Ohio — from  the  cul- 


50         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tivation  and  distinction  of  classes  to  the  rough 
dead  level  of  the  West — and  on  my  return  I 
remember  I  was  struck  with  a  sort  of  revul 
sion  of  feeling  at  the  aspect  of  slavery  which 
I  certainly  had  not  carried  with  me  to  the 
West.  But  with  the  great  mass  of  students  it 
was  the  natural,  the  only  tolerable  or  possible 
state  of  the  negro.  It  was  not  frequently  the 
theme  of  discussion,  though  sometimes  its  re 
lation  to  the  principles  of  freedom  were 
looked  in  the  face,  and  then  it  was  generally 
admitted  to  be  at  once  irreconcilable  and  ir 
redeemable.  On  this  topic  I  still  possess  my 
own  opinions  in  writing  of  that  date. 

On  the  theories  of  the  Constitution  there 
was  more  discussion,  and  I  had  sat  at  the  feet 
of  Clay  and  Webster  as  the  rest  had  of  Jeffer 
son  and  Calhoun;  the  war  was  waged  fiercely 
during  my  year  at  the  University.  There  was, 
however,  then  still  a  great  body  of  dissenters 
from  the  Jeffersonian  theories  in  the  Univer 
sity,  as  in  the  slave  States — but  always  a  mi 
nority  on  the  defensive  and  gradually  driven 
to  occupy  or  concede  more  and  more  of  the 
ground  of  their  adversaries — till  finally  their 
opposition  was  a  protest  without  principle, 
and  the  admission  was  universal,  either  tacitly 
or  expressly,  that  the  slavery  interest  found  its 
only  secure  bulwark  in  the  supremacy  of  the 
States,  the  right  of  nullification  or  secession, 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          51 

or  the  denial  or  limitation  of  every  attribute 
of  sovereignty  of  the  United  States. 

But  this  logical  and  systematic  result  had 
not  then  been  impressed  on  the  Southern 
mind ;  it  was  the  dream  of  a  few,  and  the  drift 
was  towards  it,  and  it  was  involved  remark 
ably,  but  surely,  in  the  general  principles  of 
State  rights,  which  was  everywhere  taught 
and  in  one  sense  or  another  generally  ac 
cepted. 

I  was  always  on  the  other  side,  as  well  in 
theory  as  in  practice,  and  was  vigorously  de 
nounced  for  a  Federalist. 

Professor  Davis  was  the  preacher  of  Jeffer- 
sonianism,  and  certainly  the  Federalist — Our 
text-book  on  the  Constitution  was  a  sufficient 
ly  curious  work,  read  by  the  light  of  the  Jef- 
fersonian  Commentator!  Story  was  Suspect 
ed"  and  ostracised.  Webster's  arguments  were 
answered  by  the  imputation  of  Federalism 
and  the  shrug  of  the  shoulders.  The  Doc 
trine  was  then  expounded  ex-cathedra — with 
a  glance  to  the  Holy  Mount — and  the  young 
men  went  home  sufficiently  Instructed  to  make 
the  rebellion,  for  it  is  that  generation  of  stu 
dents  who  have  prepared,  organized  and  led 
the  rebellion.  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  and  Seddon  6a 
had  just  left  the  University  a  year  or  two  when 
I  got  there.  Mr.  Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  and 
Clay,  of  Alabama,  were  there  during  my  year. 


52         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

The  tone  and  bearing  of  the  students  was 
high  and  manly;  their  cultivation  was  not 
equal  to  it.  The  sense  of  personal  dignity  and 
self-importance  was  developed  in  an  exagger 
ated  degree.  The  duel  was  the  only  soap  for 
tarnished  honor.  Every  year  supplied  its  ex 
amples  of  wounded  honor  seeking  a  surgeon 
at  Bladensburg  or  some  other  point  in  the 
proximity  of  Washington;  the  young  gentle 
men  mysteriously  vanished  from  sight,  reap 
peared  beyond  the  "Commonwealth"  and 
sought  or  accepted  distinguished  advice  at  the 
seat  of  the  government.  Arguments  and  views 
from  distinguished  lips  were  found  more  per 
suasive  after  a  long  journey  and  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  historic  field  of  civil  war,  and 
after  applications  of  emulgents,  the  scorned 
honor  reappeared  without  a  stain  and  the  skin 
which  held  it  without  a  scratch  at  the  Uni 
versity;  and  so  the  farce  ended. 

The  English  education  of  most  of  the  young 
men  was  always  found  to  have  been  sadly  neg 
lected  ;  but,  its  existence  being  assumed  as  the 
condition  of  admission,  scarcely  any  attention 
was  paid  to  it  at  the  University;  and  if  the 
little  examination  in  spelling  and  writing 
grammatically  could  be  scraped  through, 
nothing  more  was  required  and  little  more 
was  likely  to  be  attained. 

The  examinations  were  very  rigid,  but  no 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          53 

one  was  required  to  undergo  them  unless  he 
aspired  to  a  diploma,  and  then  he  must  be 
very  thorough  or  he  failed.  A  considerable 
proportion  took  diplomas  in  one  or  more 
schools,  but  very  few  took  the  Diploma  of  the 
University,  which  required  diplomas  in  per 
haps  five  schools  and  a  general  examination 
on  them  all  at  the  end.  Those  who  took  these 
grand  diplomas  were  generally  hard  students 
of  more  industry  than  mind.  There  were  some 
distinguished  exceptions.  But  the  habit  was 
to  select  two  or  three  schools,  at  the  fancy  of 
the  student,  and  devote  the  stay  at  the  Uni 
versity  to  them.  This  gave  the  education  a 
very  partial  and  imperfect  character  and  left 
the  graduate  with  a  narrow  view  of  the  field 
of  knowledge  and  a  very  imperfectly  devel 
oped  and  ill-balanced  mind. 

The  literary  societies  were  not  well  attend 
ed  or  well  sustained — at  least  not  so  well  as  at 
Kenyon. 

I  acquired  a  little  French  and  German, 
enough  to  perfect,  after  leaving  the  Universi 
ty;  attended  Professor  Rogers's  lectures  in  ge 
ology,  which  were  very  few  and  brief  that 
term,  and  devoted  my  chief  time  to  the  crab 
bed  and  jealous  jade  of  the  law. 

I  have  described,  I  think,  justly  the  lectures 
of  Professor  Davis. 


54         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

On  International  Law  Vattel's  amiable  gen 
eralities  and  shallow  philanthropy  was  the 
text-book,  for  Wheaton's  vigorous  and  historic 
work  was  of  Northern  origin  and  fit  only  to 
furnish  the  supplemental  notes  of  the  profes 
sor.  Kent  was  too  Federal  to  be  vise  across 
the  lines.  Story,  not  orthodox  on  the  Consti 
tution,  was  unavoidable  in  Equity  Jurispru 
dence  and  acquiesced  in. 

Stephens's  scientific  exposition  of  pleading 
was  judiciously  chosen  and  infinitely  instruc 
tive,  but  on  a  dead  science,  which  every  Legis 
lature  strove  to  bury  rather  than  to  revive, 
and  on  which  every  pratcising  lawyer,  after 
exhaling  eulogies  on  its  subtle  refinements, 
united  with  the  antagonist  to  declare  worth 
less  by  agreeing  in  stereotyped  form  in  every 
cause  "to  waive  all  error  of  pleading  and  al 
low  either  party  to  give  any  evidence  compe 
tent  under  any  form  of  pleading."  Still  the 
study  of  that  beautiful  work  was  admirably 
calculated  to  form  the  mind  of  a  scientific 
lawyer,  and  I  for  long  years  have  done  it 
homage  at  the  end  of  many  a  well-fought  and 
successful  struggle. 

The  chief  training  of  the  school  was  found 
in  the  venerable  but  now  obsolete  volumes  of 
Coke  on  Littleton,  whence  streamed  that  glad 
some  light  of  jurisprudence  with  which  the 
old  master  of  legal  torture  prophetically  bids 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          55 

his  disciples  farewell  at  the  end  of  his  book 
and  the  beginning  of  his  battle. 

The  labor  I  devoted  to  mastering  the  invis 
ible  distinctions,  to  noting  the  endless  diverrsi- 
ties  of  the  recondite  principles  of  the  old  law 
of  real  property,  is  now  powerful  even  in  the 
remembrance. 

Often  in  despair  I  have  closed  the  book  and 
sunk  on  my  bed,  wearied  out  with  expositions 
I  could  scarcely  grasp  and  whose  application 
I  could  not  see;  sometimes  I  have  thrown  the 
book  across  the  room  in  my  wrath,  and  once 
my  fellow-students  attest  having  caught  me 
kicking  it  over  the  floor  in  a  moment  of  men 
tal  agony.  Still  I  mastered  it,  and  I  think  in 
that  work  I  did  penance  for  all  legal  sins  of 
the  future,  and  all  work  has  since  been  easy. 
I  have  found  myself  since  armed  where  others 
have  been  naked  in  the  day  of  battle — familiar 
with  matters  which  were  mysteries  to  compet 
itors  who  had  not  been  instructed  in  its  mys 
teries,  and  able  to  explore  my  way  over  track 
less  wastes  of  controversy  to  a  safe  conclusion, 
where  those  who  studied  by  the  stars  of  "mod 
ern  instances"  were  lost  because  they  did  not 
appear  for  many  days. 

I  set  down  Coke  on  Littleton  with  the  hick 
ory  rod  on  my  shoulders  in  my  youth  as  the 
great  instruments  of  whatever  in  law  or  learn 
ing  I  have  been — but  instruments  abhorrent  to 


56         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  humanity  of  modern  homes  and  banished 
from  school  and  college  with  the  rack,  and 
Thomas  Acquinas  of  a  barbarous  age. 

thereof  let  this  little  suffice  the  diligent 
reader. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  Professor  Davis  was 
no  light  in  that  labyrinth! 

There  was  a  moot  court,  in  which  I  tried  the 
edge  of  my  logic  on  several  occasions,  but  it 
hardly  can  be  called  part  of  the  training  of  the 
University. 

Of  society  at  the  University  there  was  little, 
except  the  students;  and  the  professors  consid 
ered  themselves  responsible  for  one  party  to 
the  class;  they  were  always  affable  and  polite, 
treating  their  students  as  gentlemen  younger 
but  not  below  them,  and  this  conduct  was  met 
in  the  same  spirit.  A  high  tone  of  personal 
conduct  prevailed.  The  exceptions  were 
marked,  but  few,  and  punished  by  a  singular 
want  of  consideration  among  the  students  who 
had  a  just  public  opinion  of  their  own  very 
free  from  the  usual  bias  of  antagonism  to  the 
authorities,  which  mitigates  low  conduct  to 
mere  rebellion  against  unjust  oppression, 
whose  ministers  are  the  professors.  Their  dis 
cipline  was  generally  supported,  because  free 
and  not  petty,  nor  beyond  what  was  necessary. 
There  was  little  coarse  dissipation;  practical 
jokes  were  thought  unbecoming;  ladies' society 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          57 

was  eagerly  sought,  and  the  neighborhood 
swarmed  with  that  peculiar  growth  of  all  col 
leges — antique  unmarried  maidens,  at  whose 
feet  many  generations  of  students  have  sighed, 
revived,  been  accepted  and  forgotten — with  no 
lesion  of  the  heart  to  either  party — the  one  so 
often  impressed  that  it  has  become  elastic,  the 
other  under  a  southern  sun  melting  to  accept 
the  image  of  the  adored,  and  melting  as  easily 
before  another  flame  to  take  the  features  of 
the  successor. 

In  May,  1840,  was  held  at  Charlottesville 
one  of  those  Episcopal  carnivals  known  as  the 
Episcopal  Convention  of  Virginia. 

In  other  dioceses  the  convention  is  a  grave 
convocation  of  politic  clergymen  and  laymen 
to  pass  canons,  administer  discipline  and  go 
home. 

In  Virginia  it  was  then  a  spiritual  carnival, 
an  ecclesiastical  frolic,  a  religious  revival  and 
a  time  of  great  social  and  physical  outpouring 
and  refreshment.  Prayers  and  preaching, 
dining  and  visiting,  salutation  and  parting 
consume  the  days  and  nights.  The  early  dawn 
sees  long  lines  of  worshipers  streaming  to 
the  morning  prayers  and  lectures  in  many 
churches.  All  denominations  open  their 
churches  for  the  Episcopal  clergy — who  ac 
cept,  but  never  reciprocate  the  courtesy.  Pul 
pit  orators  from  distant  dioceses  crowd  to  the 


58         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

theater  of  doing  good  to  souls — or  themselves. 
Reputations  are  made  or  marred.  Rich  liv 
ings  follow  a  bold  flight  or  a  fervid  appeal. 
Ladies  and  gentlemen,  young  and  old,  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  sermon  of  the  day.  Vast 
crowds  gather  from  every  part  of  the  State, 
and  not  a  few  from  distant  States.  All  houses 
are  open.  Every  lady  competes  for  the  privi 
lege  of  entertaining  an  angel  not  unawares; 
and  these  angels  of  the  churches  think  they 
are  enjoying  only  their  own.  "Is  the  Bishop 
putting  up  with  you?"  was  once  the  innocent 
inquiry  of  a  gentleman.  "Oh,  no,"  was  the 
hostess'  reply,  "we  are  putting  up  with  him." 
Surely  there  was  no  more  venerable  or  vener 
ated  man  than  this  Bishop,  but  the  witty  reply 
points  the  tale  and  paints  the  scene  in  the  col 
ors  of  the  time. 

For  weeks  the  ladies  are  devoted  to  house 
wifely  preparations  for  the  feast,  that  there 
may  be  plenty  and  yet  time  to  mingle  the  spir 
itual  with  the  social  delights. 

Such  is  a  faithful  picture  of  the  Convention 
of  1840  at  Charlottesville,  as  it  is  fixed  in  my 
memory,  of  which  glimpses  float  out  in  my 
letters  of  that  date.  Not  a  few  names  of  note 
rise  before  me — some  of  promises  not  per 
formed,  some  who  sleep  forever,  some  who 
still  stir  the  world  to  flee  from  ruin  to  right 
eousness.  That  great  Bishop,  Meade,7  born  to 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          59 

rule  men,  lived  to  bow  to  the  storm  meaner 
men  had  raised  to  bless  the  rebellion  in  the 
name  of  God,  and  died  in  the  hopeless  strug 
gle  to  prove  by  an  appeal  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
that  slavery  is  a  Christian  institution. 

He  presided  over  and  inspired  the  conven 
tion. 

When  it  was  over  I  thus  described  to  my 
sister  its  characters  and  impressions. 

"This  morning,  after  a  week  of  bustle  and 
confusion,  prayer  and  dissipation,  preaching 
and  visiting,  the  American  carnival  closed  and 
Charlottesville  relapsed  into  its  wonted  dull 
ness. 

"The  crowd  that  took  the  sacrament  was 
immense;  more  than  forty  were  confirmed; 
and  Dr.  Tyng,8  of  Philadelphia,  recalled  by 
his  eloquence,  his  action  and  the  depth  and 
beauty  of  his  thoughts,  the  splendid  efforts  of 
Bishop  Mcllvaine. 

"Mr.  Davis  sent  me  your  letter  and  request 
ed  me  to  call  on  him;  I  did  not  hear  his  ser 
mon,  but  some  one  informed  me  that  it  was 
rather  too  learned  for  a  sermon  delivered  be 
fore  a  promiscuous  audience.  Mr.  Slaughter9 
preached  once,  and  his  effort  was  spoken  of  in 
the  highest  terms ;  I  was  so  unfortunate  as  to 
lose  it. 

"Dr.  Keith10  has,  unfortunately,  deserted 
written  for  extempore  sermons;  but  this  mode 


60         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

is  not  so  efficient  nor  so  interesting  as  the  for 
mer.  His  written  discourses  were  remark 
able  for  their  ability  and  eloquence;  his  ex 
tempore  effusions  possess  more  of  animation, 
energy  and  feeling,  but  not  enough  to  com 
pensate  for  the  loss  or  the  sacrifice  of  pro 
found  reflections  and  beautiful  style  which 
so  remarkably  enriched  the  former.  It  is  the 
child  of  his  old  age;  he  pets  it  till  'tis  spoiled, 
then  is  too  blind  or  too  devoted  to  descry  its 
faults. 

"Mr.  Parks,11  an  accession  to  the  banner  of 
Episcopacy  from  the  ranks  of  the  Methodists, 
has  a  vast  reputation  for  wonderful  eloquence, 
supported,  however,  by  but  a  slender  founda 
tion;  his  delivery  is  devoid  of  grace;  his  ani 
mation  degenerates  into  violence;  his  voice 
has  not  yet  lost  the  Methodistical  whine — a 
whine  that  gradually  increases  till  approach 
ing  termination  of  the  sermon  gives  the  sig 
nal  for  a  copious  effusion  of  tears  and  chok 
ing  sobs,  which,  acting  by  sympathy  on  his 
audience,  produce  corresponding  manifesta 
tions  of  feeling  equally  gratuitous,  uncalled 
for  and  ridiculous." 

This  was  the  religious  revel  of  the  year;  but 
the  country  was  now  agitated  by  the  swelling 
tide  of  discontent  which  swept  the  Democrats 
from  power  and  gave  a  treacherous  promise 
of  a  change  of  policy.  Harrison  and  Van 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          61 

Buren  again  contested  the  palm.  The  predic 
tions  of  financial  ruin  which  filled  the  last 
years  of  President  Jackson  had  been  fulfilled 
under  President  Van  Buren;  the  Whig  states 
men  were  now  the  prophets  of  the  country, 
and  the  victory  in  the  fall  of  1840  placed  them 
in  power — for  a  day. 

My  first  knowledge  of  political  speaking  is 
of  this  date. 

I  heard  with  great  delight  Mr.  William  C. 
Rives,12  in  the  Court  House  at  Charlottesville, 
vindicate  his  "consistency"  in  Virginia 
phrase,  impeached  by  his  desertion  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren  and  accession  to  the  cause  of  Gen 
eral  Harrison.  It  was  then  the  Virginia  dog 
ma  that  consistency  in  a  public  man  was  what 
chastity  is  to  woman,  and  that  consistency 
meant  holding  the  same  views  and  applying 
the  same  measures  in  every  variety  of  circum 
stances. 

Of  the  merits  of  the  controversy  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  speak;  the  vindication  was  to 
me  a  novel  experience  in  oratory. 

I  stood  in  a  window,  holding  myself  up  by 
the  sash  for  four  hours,  for  length  and  not 
brevity  was  the  test  of  merit  in  Virginia,  and 
every  theme  was  deduced  from  the  resolutions 
of  '98. 

Mr.  Rives  spoke  with  wonderful  energy — 
not  violently,  but  with  an  intensity  of  gesture 


62         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

and  utterance,  a  simplicity  of  expression,  an 
absence  of  rhetorical  amplification  and  a  di 
rectness  and  practical  plainness  worthy  of  all 
admiration,  wholly  different  from  the  per 
functory  drawl  which  prevails  in  the  pulpit, 
and  equally  different  from  fine  pulpit  oratory, 
with  its  well-rounded  periods  and  elaborate 
imagery.  It  was  a  man  in  earnest,  not  over 
nice  in  his  weapons,  but  bent  on  beating  down 
his  foe.  Mr.  Ritchie,13  of  the  Richmond  In 
quirer,  had  impeached  him  of  inconsistency, 
and  he  was  on  trial  for  his  life.  That  paper 
wras  the  Bible  of  all  good  Democrats ;  it  bore 
the  impress  of  the  Jeffersonian  era  and  ideas; 
its  enmity  was  ruin;  its  suspicion  was  danger 
ous.  Mr.  Rives'  speech  was  an  encounter  with 
his  paper;  its  editor  he  "denounced"  as  "alter 
nately  the  lickspittle  and  the  libeller  of  every 
public  man  of  Virginia."  This  phrase  sticks 
yet  in  my  memory. 

But  the  Inquirer  remained  master  of  the 
field,  and  Mr.  Rives  never  recovered  his  hold 
on  the  Virginians. 

I  left  the  Court  House  impressed  with  i 
new  idea  of  the  contests  of  real  life,  debating 
in  the  Senate,  and  the  fervid  appeals  which 
sway  multitudes. 


CHAPTER  111—1839-1840          63 

NOTES   ON   CHAPTER  III. 

1.  Gessner  Harrison   (1807-1862). 

2.  George    Blaetterman   vide   Herbert   B.   Adams's   Thomas 
Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Virginia   (page  160). 

3.  William  Barton  Rogers    (1804-1882). 

4.  Charles  Bonnycastle  (1792-1840). 

5.  George  Tucker  (1775-1861). 

6.  John  A.  G.  Davis  (1801-1840). 

6a.  Davis's  chronology  is  not  exact  as  to  R.  M.  T.  Hunter 
(1809-1887),  who  left  the  University  before  1830.  As  United 
States  Senator  from  Virginia,  he  framed  the  tariff  of  1857.  He  was 
thought  of  for  the  Presidency  of  the  Confederate  States  and  was 
Secretary  of  State  and  Senator  therein.  James  A.  Seddon(i8i5- 
1880)  graduated  from  the  University  of  Virginia  with  the  de 
gree  of  B.  L.  in  1838,  and  was  afterwards  a  member  of  the 
Congress  and  Secretary  of  War  for  the  Confederacy.  James  L. 
Orr  (1822-1873)  graduated  at  the  University  in  1842.  He  was 
speaker  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress,  and  afterwards  became  a 
member  of  the  Confederate  Senate.  After  the  close  of  the  war 
he  became  a  Republican,  and  when  he  died  he  was  Minister  to 
Russia.  Clement  C.  Clay  (1819-1882)  graduated  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Alabama  in  1835,  and  completed  his  law  studies  at 
the  University  of  Virginia  in  1840.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  afterwards  of  that  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

7.  Rt.  Rev.  William  Meade  (1789-1862). 

8.  Rev.  Stephen  Higginson  Tyng  (1800-1885). 

9.  Rev.  Philip  Slaughter   (1808-1890). 

10.  Rev.  Revel  Keith  1792-1842). 

11.  Rev.  Martin  P.  Parks,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Norfolk, 
where  the   Convention  had  met  in   1839.     He   soon   afterwards 
became  chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy  at  West  Point. 

12.  William  Cabell  Rives  (born  1795,  died  1868). 

13.  Thomas  Ritchie   (1778-1854). 


64         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PRACTICE  AT  LAW  IN  ALEXAN 
DRIA  AND  BALTIMORE 

(1840-55). 

After  leaving  the  University  of  Virginia, 
Davis  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in 
Alexandria,  Virginia.  There  "his  ability  and 
industry  attracted  attention,1  and  before  long 
he  had  acquired  a  respectable  practice,  which 
thenceforth  protected  him  from  all  annoy 
ances  of  a  pecuniary  nature.  He  toiled  with 
unwearied  assiduity,  never  appearing  in  the 
trial  of  a  cause  without  the  most  elaborate  and 
exhaustive  preparation,  and  soon  became 
known  to  his  professional  brethren  as  a  valu 
able  ally  and  a  formidable  foe." 

He  was  tall,  standing  six  feet  in  his  stock 
ings,  had  dark  hazel  eyes  and  curly  brown 
hair,  and  wore  a  moustache  on  an  otherwise 
clean-shaven  face.  On  October  30,  1845,  he 
married  Miss  Constance  C.  Gardiner,  daugh 
ter  of  William  C.  Gardiner,  Esq.2  She  is  de 
scribed  as  "a  most  accomplished  and  charm 
ing  young  lady,  as  beautiful  and  as  fragile  as 
a  flower."  She  lived  only  a  few  years  after 
their  marriage,  and  grief  over  her  loss  may 
have  been  one  of  the  causes  which  determined 
him  to  leave  Alexandria. 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855  65 

While  practising  law  at  Alexandria  in  1849 
he  is  said  to  have  voted  against  the  establish 
ment  of  district  free  schools  and  to  have  con 
tributed  to  the  columns  of  the  Alexandria 
Gazette  for  April  25  and  May  3,  letters  signed 
"Hampden,"  in  which  he  opposed  the  election 
of  a  State's  Right  Whig  to  Congress  and  con 
tended  for  the  supremacy  of  Congress  over 
the  Territories,  with  a  right  to  abolish  slavery 
therein.3  He  removed  to  Baltimore  in  the 
next  year  and  acted  as  attorney  for  Rev.  H. 
V.  D.  Johns  in  a  difficulty  he  had  with  Bishop 
Whittingham,  because  Dr.  Johns  had  offici 
ated  at  a  service  in  the  Eutaw  Street  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church.4  Although  through 
out  his  life  he  was  a  member  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  he  showed  his  independ 
ence  of  ecclesiastical  action  again,  three  years 
later,  in  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet  attack 
ing  the  bishops  for  acquitting  Bishop  George 
W.  Doane,  of  New  Jersey,  from  charges 
which  had  been  preferred  against  him.5 
Davis's  friend  Creswell 6  described  him  as  a 
"man  of  faith,"  who  "believed  in  Christ  and 
his  fellow-man."  "His  implicit  faith  in  God's 
eternal  justice  and  his  grand  moral  courage, 
imparted  to  him  his  proselyting  zeal  and  gave 
him  that  amazing  kindling  power  which  en 
abled  him  to  light  the  fires  of  enthusiasm, 
whenever  he  touched  the  public  mind." 


66         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

"His  private  life  was  spotless.  His  habits 
were  regular  and  abstemious,  and  his  practice 
in  close  conformity  with  the  Episcopal  church 
of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  invariably 
attended  divine  service  on  Sunday,  and  con 
fined  himself  for  the  remainder  of  the  day  to 
a  course  of  religious  reading." 

He  was  scrupulously  neat  in  his  dress,  and 
usually  wore  a  red  or  a  polka  dot  necktie.  His 
social  gifts  soon  brought  him  into  friendship 
with  other  lawyers,  and  he  formed  one  of  the 
original  members  of  the  Friday  Club,  which 
met  weekly  on  Friday,  from  8  to  12  P.  M.,  at 
the  houses  of  its  members.  The  club  was 
formed  by  a  brilliant  group  of  lawyers  in  No 
vember,  1852,  and  Davis  often  came  over  from 
Washington  to  the  club's  meetings  while  he 
wa,s  a  member  of  Congress.  The  club  was 
broken  up  on  March  22,  i86i,8  by  the  out 
break  of  the  Civil  War. 

Aristocratic  in  his  bearing,  he  knew  how  to 
win  men  by  his  commanding  manner.  The 
story  is  told 9  that  after  a  political  meeting 
Davis  wrapped  his  cloak  about  him  and  went 
away  without  speaking  to  any  one,  and  that 
on  the  next  day  a  butcher  in  the  market  said 
that  he  intended  to  vote  for  Davis  from  that 
very  reason.  Yet  in  his  arguments  he  sought 
to  convince,  not  to  drive,  and  in  his  eloquent 
sentences  he  displayed  a  wit  that  "suggests  the 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855  67 

play  of  a  Damascus  cimiter  that  flashes  and 
scintillates  as  it  sweeps  the  air."  His  fear 
lessness  at  the  trial  table  is  shown  by  the  story 
that  when  Reverdy  Johnson,  the  leader  of  the 
American  bar,  twitted  him  for  taking  notes, 
Davis,  with  a  quick  reference  to  Johnson's  im 
pressive  voice,  retorted:  "Yes,  Mr.  Johnson, 
but  you  will  please  remember  that,  unlike  the 
lion  in  the  play,  I  have  something  more  to  do 
than  to  roar."  n 

At  the  Baltimore  bar,  Davis  made  a  bril 
liant  career  for  himself  and  rapidly  achieved 
success.12  He  soon  entered  upon  a  political 
career  and  obtained  such  a  reputation  as  a 
speaker,  through  his  address  to  the  Whig  Na 
tional  Convention  of  1852,  that,  when  he  was 
a  candidate  for  election  as  a  presidential  elec 
tor  in  that  year,  he  was  not  only  called  on  for 
such  local  occasions  as  a  joint  debate  at  Mai- 
ley  Bridge,  in  Anne  Arundel  county,13  but  was 
even  summoned  to  speak  at  a  Scott  meeting  at 
Niagara  Falls,  where  he  occupied  the  plat 
form  with  Horace  Greeley  and  Robert  C. 
Winthrop.14  He  had  been  a  resident  of  Mary 
land  for  only  two  years  at  that  time,  and 
showed  his  interest  in  the  attitude  of  the  Ro 
man  Catholic  church  by  writing  to  John  M. 
Clayton  to  inquire  if  it  were  true  that  nine 
Roman  Catholic  bishops  had  pledged  them 
selves  to  support  Clay  for  the  Presidency.15  In 


68         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

1852  he  published  his  only  book,  "The  War 
of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  16  the  title  page  of  which  bore  ap 
propriately  a  quotation  from  Demosthenes. 
It  is  a  young  man's  book,  turgid  and  over- 
rhetorical,  and  yet  contains  passages  of  great 
power.  Wide  reading  in  both  ancient  and 
modern  history  and  an  earnest,  fervid  spirit 
are  shown.  The  Crimean  War  had  not  as  yet 
revealed  the  weakness  of  Russia,  and  to  Davis 
that  great  empire  was  a  menacing  danger  to 
the  world.  He  would  appeal  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  resist  its  onslaught,  ere 
there  came  a  world-embracing,  despotic  em 
pire.17  "Within  the  four  score  years  of  the 
life  of  man,  two  powers  have  grown  from  in 
significance  to  be  the  arbiters  of  the  world," 
Davis  wrote.  "Each  is  the  incarnation  of  one 
of  the  two  great  spirits — pure,  absolute,  un 
checked,  uncontrolled,  unlimited — which  have 
always  striven  and  now  still  strive  on  the  the 
atre  of  nations  for  the  mastery  of  mankind. 
These  two  spirits  are  liberty  and  despotism— 
the  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  of  the  political 
world.  Their  purest  emanations  are  the  Re 
public  of  America  and  the  Empire  of  Russia." 
In  other  nations  the  principles  of  liberty  and 
despotism  are  mingled,  but  "it  is  only  in  the 
Republic  of  America  that  the  people,  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  are  the  recognized, 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855  69 

uncontrolled,  unquestioned,  sovereign  power. 
It  is  only  in  Russia  that  the  emperor  is  met  by 
the  cheerful,  unquestioning,  submissive  and 
the  affectionate  devotion  of  the  people."  An 
ticipating  the  objections  that  the  negro  slaves 
were  under  despotic  rule  and  that  the  Poles 
were  discontented,  Davis  said  that  these  facts 
were  not  important  enough  to  be  considered, 
and  insisted  that  the  United  States  had 
"thriven  among  the  arts  of  peace  and  indus 
try,"  while  Russia  "has  gorged  its  greatness 
by  the  spoils  of  war  and  fruits  of  intrigue."  18 
In  Davis's  opinion, "in  this  age  of  the  world, 
two  principles  of  government  divide  mankind. 
The  one  theory,  rejecting  with  contempt  the 
shallow  fiction  of  the  social  contract,  and  with 
indignation  the  impious  arrogance  of  the 
'right  divine,'  traces  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  of  civil  society,  in  the  nature  and  wants 
of  man,  written  there  by  the  finger  of  God 
and  surrounded  by  feelings,  tendencies  and  ca 
pacities  which,  in  their  natural  development, 
assume  the  shape  and  attributes  of  national 
existence  under  formal  governments."  He 
believed  that  "the  purposes  of  civil  society  can 
only  be  attained  by  the  instrumentality  of 
government,  reducing  to  the  forms  of  law  the 
will  of  the  nation  and  coercing  submission 
from  its  individual  members.  The  right  to 
prescribe  these  laws  and  direct  their  execution 


70         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

is  sovereignty.  That  power  in  the  State  which 
holds  that  right  in  the  last  resort  is  the  sov 
ereign  power.  The  persons  who  actually  ap 
ply  and  execute  those  laws  are  the  officers  and 
delegates  of  that  sovereign  power.  Wherever 
that  sovereignty  resides,  it  must  be  absolutely 
uncontrollable  and  arbitrary."  Such  is  Davis's 
political  theory.  "The  controversy  of  the  age 
disputes  the  residence  of  that  ultimate  sover 
eignty.  We  maintain  that  it  resides  in  the 
mass  of  every  nation.  A  majority  has  no  in 
herent  rights;  it  is  an  artificial  creation;  it 
holds  only  a  delegated  power;  it  is  only  the 
instrument  provided  by  the  previously  de 
clared  will  of  the  nation  for  ascertaining  its 
decision  under  given  circumstances." 

We  can  see  the  reasons  why  Davis  was  so 
ardent  a  Unionist  as  we  read:  "It  is  the  nation 
only  which  is  sovereign.  The  mass  of  the  na 
tion  is  necessarily  somewhat  indefinite,  but 
each  case  must  be  adjusted  as  it  rises.  One 
man  could  not  be  allowed  to  impede  the  will 
of  all  the  rest,  nor  would  a  majority  of  one  be 
any  ground,  except  for  the  provisions  of  posi 
tive  law,  for  the  control  of  the  other  half  of 
society.  It  is  the  duty  of  mere  fragments  of 
the  nation  to  yield  their  opposition  to  the  gen 
eral  will."  20  ' 

"The  despots  of  Europe,"  on  the  other  hand, 
"deny  any  participation  in  the  attributes  of 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855          71 

sovereign  power  to  the  nation;  they  arrogate 
them  absolutely  to  the  crown.  Kings  are  the 
plenipotentiaries  of  God,  who  imparts  to  them 
the  absolute  power  of  sovereignty.  In  his 
name,  they  rule  with  absolute  sway  his  sub 
jects;  they  are  responsible — not  to  the  people, 
not  to  the  nation — but  to  God,  the  source  and 
giver  of  their  power."  "The  scourge  of  a 
merciless  ruler"  may  "be  a  misfortune  to  a 
nation,"  but  it  has  no  right  to  demand  a 
change.  The  "responsibility  of  an  ambassa 
dor  is  to  his  sovereign,"  and  the  "only  right  of 
the  subject  is  prayer  to  God  for  relief,  or  for 
vengeance,  or  for  patience."  21 

The  author  next  discussed  European  history 
since  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  believing  that 
the  "Holy  Alliance  was  a  scandalous  conspir 
acy  against  the  liberties  of  mankind."  He 
traced  the  story  through  the  conferences  of 
Laybach  and  Verona;  the  crushing  of  the  con 
stitutional  movements  in  Spain,  Naples  and 
Poland;  the  downfall  of  the  Bourbons  in 
France;  the  revolt  of  Europe  in  1848  against 
the  "holy  conspirators"  and  the  recent  over 
throw  of  Kossuth  in  Hungary.  His  ardent 
imagination  saw  a  dictatorship  of  Russia  on 
the  Continent  of  Europe  and  believed  that  the 
American  Republic  should  ally  itself  with 
England  and  face  the  prospect  of  the  last  war 
of  freedom  and  despotism.  "The  crown  of 


72         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Hungary  was  for  centuries  elective,"  Davis 
wrote,  "as  were  all  the  other  crowns  of  Eu 
rope,  that  now  forget  their  lowly  origin  in 
their  lofty  claims  to  the  right  divine.  The 
mists  which  have  hung  around  the  morning 
of  history  have  always  been  the  refuge  of 
royal  pride  to  conceal  the  nakedness  of  its 
birth.  It  has  ever  aspired  to  draw  its  title  to 
rule  from  the  gift  of  God,  rather  than  the 
will  of  man,  and  the  illusion  of  historic  per 
spective  which  blends  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  in  the  distance  of  the  dim  horizon  has 
served  to  veil  the  fiction  of  a  divine  diploma 
for  usurpations  which  time  has  half  covered 
with  the  hoary  emblems  of  right.  The  pesti 
lent  delusion  has  hitherto  proved  ineradica 
ble,  save  by  the  sword  or  by  the  ax."  ffi 

He  held  that  from  the  Czar  there  was  more 
danger  to  the  world  of  an  universal  empire 
than  there  had  been  from  Charles  V,  Louis 
XIV,  or  Napoleon;  that  the  dictatorship  of 
Russia  in  Europe  is  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  the  experience  of  the  English  monarchy 
and  the  American  Republic  as  free,  popular, 
representative  governments."  The  only  alter 
natives  before  us  are  "a  war  in  Europe,  now 
with  allies,"  or  war  hereafter,  on  our  own  soil, 
without  allies.23  WithNapoleonlll  in  France, 
there  wras  no  hope  to  the  cause  of  liberty  there, 
and  no  other  continental  power  was  "able  to 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855          73 

stay  the  march  of  Russia  to  universal  empire." 
The  Czar  is  "not  only  the  arbiter  of  Chris 
tian  Europe,  but  also  the  master  of  Moham 
medan  Europe,"  and  thus  controlled  the  an 
swer  to  the  two  great  problems  of  Europe  in 
the  nineteenth  century — the  fates  of  the  Otto 
man  Empire  and  of  free  principles.  So  long, 
however,  "as  England  exists,  resplendent  in 
all  the  glories  of  liberty,  despotism  can  find 
no  safe  and  quiet  abode  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe."24 

History,  in  ancient  times,  showed  what  the 
danger  was.  "The  Grecian  genius  has  left 
the  model  of  liberty  for  the  inspiration  of  fu 
ture  ages.  It  has  also  left  the  plan  by  which 
it  may  be  encountered  and  destroyed.  Every 
usurpation  of  a  later  day,  effected  by  anything 
but  barbarous  force,  has  been  a  coarse  and 
distant  imitation  of  the  classic  art,  with  which 
Philip  subjugated  the  fierce  and  turbulent 
democracy  of  Greece.  The  rise  of  the  Rus 
sian  Empire  and  its  march  to  the  control  of 
Europe  is  the  closest  imitation  history  fur 
nishes  of  the  great  model.  Europe  awaits  her 
Ch^ronea."  * 

In  the  United  States,  the  "North  is  filled 
with  the  fanatics  of  liberty,  as  the  South  is 
with  the  Quixotes  of  slavery."  Where  there 
is  compromise,  it  is  because  the  balance  is 
turned  by  a  small  minority  of  moderate  men. 


74         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

"The  Compromise  Bills  of  1850  have  not  laid 
the  infernal  spirit  of  sectional  agitation.  The 
day  of  final  collision  is  adjourned;  it  is  not 
gotten  rid  of.  Emancipation,  or  disunion, 
may  be  the  only  alternatives.  The  eagle  eye 
of  Russia  will  not  fail  to  mark  such  oppor 
tunity."  Mexico  may  ally  herself  with  Rus 
sia,  which,  on  "the  west  coast,  is  an  American 
power,  nearer  our  possessions  than  we  are." 
It  is  true  that  Washington  warned  us  against 
entangling  alliances,  but  an  English  alliance 
now  comes  under  the  exception  he  made  of 
"temporary  alliances  for  extraordinary  occa 
sions,"  and  the  instructions  he  gave  Jay,  as  to 
an  armed  neutrality,  hinted  at  the  possibility 
of  an  alliance  with  other  nations  to  support 
our  principles.  The  other  great  principle  of 
our  foreign  policy,  the  Monroe  doctrine,  also 
was  "the  formal  adoption  of  the  policy" which 
Davis  advocated,  for  "Russia  now  invades,  or 
seriously  threatens  our  rights,"  and  J.  Q.  Ad 
ams,  in  his  Panama  message,  "declared  that, 
in  our  sphere,  and  in  our  day,  and  according 
to  our  measure,  and  as  far  as  is  complete  with 
our  safety,  we  are  on  the  side  of  liberty,  not 
merely  in  word,  but  in  deed." 

In  1853  Davis  delivered  the  closing  address 
before  the  Maryland  Institute,  an  eloquent 
and  scholarly  oration,  which  was  published 
in  pamphlet  form.  He  told  his  hearers  in 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855          75 

glowing  sentences,  "the  history  of  labor  is  the 
oldest  and  will  be  the  last  of  all  histories.'' 
It  begins  with  the  fall  of  man — it  will  end 
only  with  his  race.  It  antedates  the  ruler 
and  the  priest,  and  it  will  survive  or  cease 
with  them." 

"God  inflicted  labor  as  a  penalty.  His  mer 
cy  softens  it  into  a  blessing.  The  pride  of  man 
has  perverted  it  into  a  disgrace." 

"Industry,  in  its  widest  acceptation,  em 
braces  every  active  exercise  of  the  powers  of 
mind  or  body  for  the  production  of  any  use 
ful  object  or  result.  The  subjects  of  industry 
are  the  same  in  every  age — some  exercising 
the  higher  and  other  the  lower  faculties,  some 
level  to  the  capacity  of  all,  others  attainable 
only  by  the  few,  but  all  intended  to  be  pur 
sued  for  the  comfort  and  elevation  of  man  in 
this  his  lower  abode.  In  the  eye  of  God,  all 
are  honorable,  for  He  made  the  faculties  of 
man  to  be  exercised,  not  to  be  idle.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  primitive  patriarchal  society,  all 
occupations  were  honorable,  for  all  were  the 
offspring  of  some  of  the  faculties  of  man.  But, 
from  that  day  to  this,  pride  and  power  have 
sought  to  elevate  themselves  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  multitude  and,  to  mark  the  distinction, 
they  have  stamped  the  pursuits  of  the  multi 
tude  with  contempt.  The  favored  pursuits 
have  varied  in  different  ages,  but  the  relation 


76         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

between  them  and  others  has  ever  been  that  of 
the  honorable  and  the  despised. "  He  consid 
ered  the  history  of  Greece,  Rome  and  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  noted  that  the  Americans 
had  succeeded  in  agriculture,  mechanics  and 
commerce;  but  had  not  as  yet  excelled  in 
science,  the  fine  arts  or  literature.  Political 
economy  had  treated  of  wealth,  not  man,  but 
now  the  beginnings  of  social  legislation  were 
found  in  England.  Socialism  is  urged  by 
some.  "As  a  whole,"  when  examined,  "it  can 
never  be  adopted,  as  no  theory  has  at  any  time 
been  adopted  by  men  for  the  reconstruction  of 
society,  but  it  will  furnish  new  and  fertile 
suggestions.  It  is  penetrated  with  a  moral 
idea  which  is  mighty  for  the  elevation  of  the 
working  classes."  This  early  recognition  of 
the  importance  of  socialism  is  notable. 

After  praising  the  Odd  Fellows,  he  takes 
up  subjects  of  local  interest — the  tobacco 
warehouses,  the  public  schools,  the  laws  con 
cerning  shipping,  the  limitation  of  hours  of 
labor,  government  banks,  a  public  chemist, 
and  a  State  geological  survey.  Finally,  he 
said:  "It  is  the  proud  peculiarity  of  this  Re 
public  that  labor  is  honorable  in  all.  It  has 
been  so  from  the  beginning;  it  will  so  continue 
tc  the  end  of  the  Republic.  It  is  a  product  of 
our  free  and  equal  condition;  it  is  the  essential 
guardian  of  that  condition.  It  has  been  so 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855          77 

from  the  condition  of  the  emigrant  fathers, 
from  the  condition  of  the  country  they  sub 
dued,  from  the  age  of  the  world  in  which  they 
lived,  from  the  religious  ideas  which  imbued 
them,  from  the  political  institutions  which 
spring  from  those  ideas  and  in  return  fostered 
them  by  their  protection.  American  Repub 
licanism  does  not  look  on  labor  as  a  necessity; 
it  imposes  it  as  a  duty,  and,  therefore,  it  is 
honorable  in  all,  and  idleness  is  not  honorable 
in  any.  Yet  we  are  least  of  all  people  guilty 
of  the  folly  of  leveling  all  pursuits.  We  do 
not  honor  less  the  smaller;  we  only  honor 
the  greater  triumph  more." 

During  these  years  of  practice  at  the  bar 
Davis  did  not  neglect  the  study  of  languages 
and  literature.  His  friend  Creswell26  said 
that  "his  habit  was  not  only  to  read,  but  to 
re-read  the  best  of  his  books  frequently,  and 
he  was  continually  supplying  himself  with 
better  editions  of  his  favorites.  In  current 
playful  conversation  with  his  friends  he  quot 
ed  right  and  left,  in  brief  and  at  length,  from 
the  classics,  ancient  and  modern,  and  from  the 
drama,  tragic  and  comic.  He  was  the  best 
scholar  I  ever  met,  for  his  years  and  active 
life,  and  was  surpassed  by  very  few,  except 
ing  mere  bookworms."  As  a  result  of  the 
training  of  these  years,  Davis  entered  public 
life  "possessed  of  a  mind  of  remarkable 


78         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

power,  scope  and  activity;  with  an  immense 
fund  of  precious  information,  ready  to  re 
spond  to  any  call  he  might  make  upon  it,  how 
ever  sudden;  wielding  a  system  of  logic 
formed  in  the  severest  school  and  tried  by  long 
practice;  gifted  with  a  rare  command  of  lan 
guage  and  an  eloquence  well-nigh  superhu 
man,  and  withal  graced  with  manners  the 
most  accomplished  and  refined,  and  a  person 
unusually  handsome,  graceful  and  attractive." 

NOTES   ON   CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Creswell,  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XIX. 

2.  Creswell,  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XX  . 

3.  Vide  "Portrait  of  Henry  Winter  Davis,  Esq.,  by  his  own 
hand,  and  "A  Review  of  Mr.  Davis  and  Free  Soilism."     In  1855 
he  is  said  to  have  claimed  that  these  letters  were  his  contribu 
tions  toward  maintaining  the  peace  of  the  country  against  se 
cessionists. 

4.  H.    W.    Scott's    "Great    American    Lawyers."     A    slight 
sketch  of  Davis,  with  portrait,  occupies  pages  283-290. 

5.  This  pamphlet,  which  caused   Davis's  opponents   in   1855 
to   taunt   him    as   a    "lawyer   with   pompous   pretensions   to   the 
character  of  a  theologian,"  is  entitled  "A  Epistle  Congratulatory 
to  the  Bishops  of  the  Episcopal  Court  at  Canada  by  Ulric  von 
Hutten,  New  York,  1853,  page  74,  and  is  dated  on  the  Feast  of 
Alcantara." 

6.  Speeches    and    Addresses,   XXIX — John    A.  J.    Creswell, 
(1828-1891)  was  a  member  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  United 
States  Senator  from  Maryland  from   1865   to  1867,  Postmaster- 
General  1869-1874,  and  member  of  the  Alabama  Claims  Com 
mission    1874-1876. 

7.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXXIII. 

8.  Capt.    Henry    P.    Goddard,    in    an    informing    article    on 
Davis,    which    appeared    in   the    Baltimore    Sunday   Herald   of 


CHAPTER  IV— 1840-1855  79 

March  8,  1903,  on  the  authority  of  William  F.  Frick,  Esq.,  at 
that  time  the  last  survivor  of  the  Club,  names  as  the  members 
of  the  Club,  in  addition  to  Messrs.  Frick  and  Davis:  Severn 
Teackle  Wallis,  Judge  George  William  Brown,  C.  H.  Pitts, 
Thomas  Donaldson  and  F.  W.  Brune. 

9.  By  Isaac  Brooks  to  Capt.  H.  P.  Goddard,  and  repeated  in 
the  Baltimore  Sunday  Herald  of  March  8,  1903. 

10.  Capt.  H.  P.  Goddard,  in  the  Baltimore  Sunday  Herald 
of  March  8,  1903. 

11.  Steiner's  Johnson,  4.     Curiously,  the  only  comment  I  have 
found  by  Johnson  upon  Davis  is  a  reference  in  a  speech  made 
in  the  Senate  in  1866  to  him  as  "eminent  as  a  lawyer,  as  well 
as  a  politician,  and,  in  my  judgment,  more  often  wrong  in  the 
latter  capacity  than  he  was  in  the  former."      (Steiner's  Johnson, 
I39-) 

12.  10  Cent.  L.  J.,  106,  speaks  of  his  boldness. 

13.  "Portrait  of  Davis  by  his  own  hand." 

14.  Rhodes,  U.  S.  vol.  I,  270. 

15.  Clayton  Papers,  in  Library  of  Congress. 

16.  Printed  in  Baltimore,  it  is  an  octavo  of  450  pages. 

17.  On  the  title  page  he  placed  the  quotation: 

"Litora  litoribus  contraria,  fluctibus  undas, 
Imprecor,  arma  armis,  pugnent  ipsique  nepotesque." 

18.  Page  12. 

19.  Page  23. 

20.  Page  25. 

21.  Page  26. 

22.  Page  218. 

23.  Page  276. 

24.  Page  327. 

25.  Page  333. 

26.  Speeches  and  Addresses.  XXII. 


8o         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE    THIRTY-THIRD    CONGRESS 

(1855-57). 

The  rapid  influx  of  immigrants,  after  the 
potato  famine  in  Ireland  and  the  failure  of 
the  revolutionary  movements  in  Germany, 
alarmed  many  persons  in  the  United  States 
and  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Know  Noth 
ing,  or  Native  American  party.  Maryland 
had  always  shown  nativist  leanings  and  was  a 
conservative  State,  in  which  the  Whigs  had 
been  strong.  When  that  party  broke  up,  its 
members  feared  the  anti-slavery  proclivities 
of  the  Republican  party  and  coalesced  with 
the  Americans,  giving  the  union  such  strength 
that  in  1856  Maryland  was  the  only  State  to 
cast  her  vote  for  Fillmore,  the  Whig  and 
American  candidate.  When  Davis  was  in 
Europe,  in  the  summer1  of  1854,  the  Ameri 
can  party  was  organized  in  Baltimore,  and 
that  autumn  it  carried  the  city  in  a  quiet  elec 
tion.  With  many  another  Whig,  Davis  joined 
the  Know  Nothings  and  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  party  councils.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet, 
defending  its  position,  which  pamphlet  was 
published  under  the  title  of  "The  Origin, 
Principles  and  Purposes  of  the  American 
Party,"  and  defined  that  party  as  "the  associa- 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  81 

tion  of  American  Republicans  to  vindicate 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Republic, 
sacrificed  by  worn-out  parties  to  personal  and 
factional  ambition."  This  "revolt,  veiled  in 
secresy,"  was  opposed  by  "fanatics  of  freedom 
and  fanatics  of  slavery,  disorganizers  and  dis- 
unionists  both."  The  party's  platform  in 
cluded  the  exclusion  of  religion  from  political 
influence,  freedom  of  schools  from  sectarian 
ism,  and  the  protection  of  the  "purity  of  elec 
tions  against  the  influence  of  venal,  foreign 
immigrants."  The  old  issues  were  dead.  The 
people  support  the  tariff  of  1846.  The  strug 
gle  as  to  implied  power  had  ended  in  a  com 
promise.  The  bank  and  internal  improve 
ments  are  no  longer  issues.  The  people  revolt 
against  parties.  The  Nebraska  and  the  Home 
stead  bills  are  to  be  opposed.  "American  Re 
publicans  alone  are  entitled  to  rule  the  Amer 
ican  Republic.  The  great  mass  of  European 
emigrants  are  unfit  recipients  of  American 
citizenship,  without  a  longer  and  more  thor 
ough  probation."  Too  many  of  the  enslaved 
millions  were  coming  to  our  shores.  "By  our 
American  law,  office  is  the  right  of  no  one.  It 
is  not  a  property,  but  a  trust.  No  person, 
but  one  of  American  birth,  shall  be  trusted 
with  American  affairs."  The  State  should  be 
neutral  in  religion,  avoiding  Mormon  and 
Papist  influence.  The  Roman  Catholics  in 


82         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Maryland  had  deserted  the  Whig  party  to 
vote  for  Lowe,  the  successful  Democratic  can 
didate  for  Governor,  because  he  was  one  of 
their  faith.  American  Roman  Catholics,  how 
ever,  "with  American  principles  in  their  bos 
oms,  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Ultra- 
montanes  in  Europe.  The  Federal  Consti 
tution  makes  the  Union  neutral  as  to  slavery 
in  the  States,  and  the  new  party  tolerated  no 
agitation  of  that  "local  subject."'  They  sup 
ported  the  fugitive  slave  law,  and  did  not  fa 
vor  the  repeal  of  the  Kansas  bill;  "for,  to  open 
the  question,  renews  the  terrible  collision  of 
opposing  passions."  Kansas  may  decide  as  to 
the  establishment  of  slavery  in  its  first  State 
Constitution.  The  veto  power  of  the  Presi 
dent  is  feared,  as  he  forms  no  part  of  the  Leg 
islature  and  should  not  influence  the  nature  of 
the  laws,  but  should  veto  those  acts  only  which 
appear  to  him  unconstitutional.  The  new 
party  recognized  "no  absolute  or  ultimate  sov 
ereignty  anywhere,  but  in  the  mass  of  the  peo 
ple  of  every  country."  The  party's  foreign 
policy  was  one  of  "peace  and  avoidance  of  en 
tanglement,"  though  the  existence  of  Euro 
pean  colonies  on  our  Southern  borders  was 
viewed  with  disgust. 

Davis's  political  activity  led  to  his  nomina 
tion  and  election  to  Congress  in  the  autumn  of 
1855.  His  previous  career  and  his  speech  at 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857  83 

the  Assembly  Rooms,  on  Hanover  street,  when 
he  accepted  the  nomination,  were  bitterly  at 
tacked  during  the  campaign  in  a  series  of 
pamphlets.  He  was  elected  by  a  vote  of  7,988, 
as  against  7,493  for  his  opponent,  Henry  May. 
Nine  years  later3  Davis  told  the  House  of 
Representatives  that  this  election  was  the 
"first  open  struggle  for  power  between  the 
Know  Nothings  and  the  Democrats,  who"  or 
ganized  banded  bodies  of  armed  ruffians  and 
bullies,  who  at  nearly  every  poll  in  the  City  of 
Baltimore,  at  the  municipal  elections,  made 
deliberate  assaults  on  the  people  there  assem 
bled  and  numbers  of  persons  were  wounded. 
They  carried  by  a  small  vote  that  election.  In 
the  two  weeks  before  the  Congressional  elec 
tion,  the  "young  mechanics  of  Baltimore,  the 
heart  and  sinew  of  the  Republic,  and  without 
whom  the  nation  would  be  nothing,"  organ 
ized  themselves  with  arms  and  said:  "We  will 
vote,  if  it  is  to  be  a  vote,  and  fight,  if  it  is  to  be 
a  fight."  Again  the  Irish  and  Democrats, 
"armed  with  United  States  weapons,  took  the 
offensive,  but  failed  at  the  polls,  and  the  re 
sult  was  that  we  carried  the  day  by  a  small 
majority  on  a  very  full  vote,  and  nobody  was 
fool  enough  to  come  here,  after  having  ap 
pealed  to  arms  as  well  as  votes,  and  been  de 
feated,  and  attempt  to  impeach  the  election." 
Davis  was  sworn  in  as  a  member  of  the 


84         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Thirty-fifth  Congress  on  December  3,  1855, 
and  found  the  House  beginning  a  long  strug 
gle  for  the  Speakership.  No  party  had  a  ma 
jority  in  the  House,  and  no  two  parties  would 
unite.  Davis's  prominence  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  he  received  occasional  votes  for  the 
office  of  Speaker,  although  a  new  member.4 
He  voted  with  his  associate  from  Baltimore, 
J.  Morrison  Harris,4a  for  various  Know  Noth 
ings.5  As  the  long  struggle  dragged  on,  Zol- 
licoffer,5a  of  Tennessee,  moved,  on  January  11, 
1856,  that  it  be  considered  the  duty  of  all  can 
didates  fully  to  state  their  opinions  on  impor 
tant  public  problems.  Davis  concurred  in  this 
view  and  made  his  first  speech,  in  which  he 
maintained  that  the  American  candidate,  Ful 
ler,51'  had  answered  "a  series  of  sharp  and 
pressing  interrogatories,"  and  the  other  candi 
dates — Richardson  5c  for  the  Democrats,  and 
Banks 5d  for  the  Republicans — should  do  the 
same.  Yet  these  men  had  refused  to  say  how 
they  would  organize  the  committees  if  elected. 
Davis  "would  vote  for  any  gentleman  into 
whose  hands  I  believe  the  interests,  the  dig 
nity  and  the  honor  of  the  country  would  be 
safe."  He  continued  to  vote  for  Fuller  until 
the  end,  opposing  on  February  i  an  election 
by  plurality.  On  the  next  day,  when  Banks 
was  elected  Speaker  over  Aiken,5e  for  whom 
the  Democrats  then  voted,  Davis  and  Cullen,5f 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857  85 

of  Delaware,  were  the  only  representatives 
from  slave  States  who  did  not  vote  for  Aiken.6 
Although  Davis  thus  showed  that  he  was  not 
in  complete  sympathy  with  the  South,  even  he 
voted  against  the  expulsion  of  Preston  Brooks 
for  assaulting  Sumner,  and  withheld  his  vote 
as  to  the  censure  of  Keith.7  When  the  com 
mittee  appointments  were  announced,  Davis 
was  placed  on  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit 
tee,  and  continued  as  a  member  thereof  until 
1861.  He  sprang  into  prominence  in  March 
by  his  speeches  on  the  Kansas  election.  On 
March  12  8  he  made  the  first  of  those  orations 
which  led  James  G.  Elaine,  then  the  young 
editor  of  the  Kennebec  Journal,  in  Augusta, 
Maine,  to  write9  that  "Davis  is  the  most  elo 
quent  and  promising  member  of  his  party  in 
the  House,"  and  to  entertain  for  Davis  an  ad 
miration  which  did  not  lessen  with  the  years. 

When  the  Committee  on  Elections  asked 
authority  to  send  for  persons  and  papers  to 
investigate  alleged  violations  of  peace  in  Kan 
sas,  Davis  made  "observations  on  the  ques 
tion,"  saying  that  "with  criminations  and  re 
criminations  of  adverse  partisans  I  do  not 
meddle."  He  would  have  favored  action  look 
ing  toward  the  impeachment  of  Governor 
Reeder,  or  a  general  investigation  of  malad 
ministration  in  Kansas.  The  people  of  Mary 
land  had  "no  tender  susceptibilities  connected 


86         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

with  this  subject,  and  have  neither  formed 
emigrant  aid  societies,  nor  invaded  a  Terri 
tory."  "Resting,  as  Maryland  does,  centrally 
between  twro  sections  of  this  country,  honestly 
and  devotedly  bound  up  in  the  Constitution 
of  this  country,  she  is  ready,  freely  and  fairly, 
to  investigate  grievances  alleged  either  by  the 
North  or  by  the  South  in  respect  to  any  Ter 
ritory,  how  far  soever  it  be  toward  the  setting 
sun."  He  feared  no  "grave  civil  complica 
tions  from  the  organization"  of  Kansas,  and 
thought  the  cloud  was  "a  wind  cloud — bois 
terous,  disturbing,  casting  the  dust  in  men's 
eyes,  but  not  charged  with  any  lightning  likely 
to  strike  any  one  of  the  towers  of  the  Republic 
and  having  none  of  the  portentious  stillness 
which  marks  the  coming  earthquake  which 
can  shake  its  foundations."  The  Elections 
Committee  differed  as  to  whether  evidence 
should  be  taken  by  calling  witnesses  before  the 
committee,  or  whether  a  commission  should 
be  sent  to  Kansas  to  take  evidence;  but  Davis 
said  that  the  real  point  was,  whether  there 
were  facts  which  can  weigh  a  feather  in  this 
matter.  There  was  no  foundation  for  an  in 
vestigation  by  parol  testimony.  The  Demo 
crats  wrongly  argued  that  no  court  could  in 
quire  into  the  legality  of  the  organization  of 
the  Kansas  Legislature  which  passed  the  Act 
under  which  Whitfield  claimed  the  election  to 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  87 

a  seat  in  the  House,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
House  itself  could  make  no  such  inquiry. 
"The  constitution  of  the  Legislature  is  a  thing 
that  never  has  been  and  never  can,  properly, 
be  a  matter  of  judicial  investigation,"  for  "all 
judicial  functions  proceed  upon  the  assump 
tion  that  there  is  a  Legislature  in  existence." 
An  election  to  a  seat  in  the  House  "lies  within 
the  circle  of  the  political  functions  of  the 
State,"  and  "must  be  decided,  before  any  ques 
tion  can  be  decided  by  the  judiciary."  "The 
very  existence  of  the  government,"  Davis  con 
tinued,  "rests  upon  the  postulate  that,  for 
every  difference  about  political  conduct,  there 
is  a  final  arbiter,  whose  decision  is  absolute, 
binding  on  everybody  and  all  questions."  We 
must,  then,  go  to  the  law  and  see  where  the 
right  to  decide  this  question  is  vested,  both  in 
case  of  an  ordinary  election  and  of  a  revolu 
tion.  The  "extent  of  violence  and  mode  of 
fraud"  do  not  change  matters.  "There  is  no 
gentleman  in  this  House  for  whom  illegal 
votes  were  not  cast.  There  has  been  no  Leg 
islature  elected  in  our  history  where  there  has 
not  been  more  or  less  violence  at  the  polls." 
By  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  the  whole  con 
trol  of  the  election  was  delegated  to  the  Gov 
ernor,  and,  therefore,  the  Legislature  ap 
proved  by  him  was  a  valid  one.  In  deciding 
between  two  rival  Territorial  governments, 


88         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  House  must  go  "behind  the  law,  to  the 
authority  which  the  body  has  assumed  to  pass 
the  law.  We  are  in  search,  not  of  the  law, 
but  of  the  foundation  of  the  law.  The  Presi 
dent  must  determine  exclusively.  Upon  his 
judgment — sandy  as  the  foundation  may  be, 
aghast  as  we  may  stand  at  the  frail  vessel  in 
which  this  awful  power  is  now  deposited — 
rests  the  sanction  of  every  power,  the  authority 
of  every  law,  the  enforcement  of  every  pre 
cept,  and  everything  which  rescues  that  Ter 
ritory  from  the  control  of  the  Indian  and  con 
verts  it  into  the  domain  of  civil  society." 
Pierce  had  acted.  The  House  can  not  inquire 
collaterally  into  the  validity  of  the  territorial 
laws  of  Kansas.  Kansas  has  been  invaded 
from  both  North  and  South,  and  Davis  must 
support  the  President,  since  the  people  of 
Kansas  "were  wanting  to  themselves  in  not 
meeting  armed  intrusion  by  armed  resist 
ance."  10 

At  the  evening  session  of  the  House  on  Au 
gust  7,  1856,  when  it  was  in  committee  of  the 
whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,11  Davis  deliv 
ered  an  eloquent  address  upon  the  coming 
Presidential  election.  Fillmore  had  been 
nominated  by  the  remnant  of  the  Whigs  and 
by  the  Americans,  and  Davis  earnestly  advo 
cated  his  election  as  a  national  candidate  over 
Fremont  and  Buchanan,  who  had  been  nomi- 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  89 

nated  by  the  Republican  and  Democratic  par 
ties,  respectively.  Davis  regarded  both  of 
these  parties  as  sectional  ones,  and  in  sentences 
replete  with  his  knowledge  of  Shakespeare 
and  the  Bible,  with  allusions  to  classic  mythol 
ogy,  ancient  history,  and  Cooper's  novels,  he 
urged  that  neither  of  them  should  be  given 
the  victory.  His  dramatic  power  was  clearly 
shown  in  this  speech,  and  its  hot  sentences  still 
thrill  the  reader.  He  maintained  that  "the 
Democratic  party  rests  itself  on  its  boasted 
and  self-arrogated  privilege  of  supporting  and 
sustaining  the  peculiar  institution  of  the 
South.  Its  strength,  and  its  whole  strength, 
consists  in  its  assertion  that  it  alone  is  the  de 
fender  of  Southern  rights.  It  is,  therefore, 
dangerous  for  anything  to  arise  within  the 
limits  of  the  South  and  claim  a  hearing  from 
the  Southern  people,  which  touches  more 
nearly  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  appeals  to 
the  more  elevated  and  noble  sentiments  of  de 
votion  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  The 
gentlemen  of  the  Republican  party  of  the 
North  aspire  to  represent  that  sentiment 
which  is  likewise  local  and  peculiarly  confined 
to  the  boundary  of  the  North,  and  having  no 
power  beyond  it.  They  are  strictly  sectional 
parties,  tending  to  bring  into  collision  hostile 
opinions,  feelings  and  interests  concentrated 
without  mixture  at  the  opposite  poles  of  the 


90         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

country — each  intensified,  like  opposite  elec 
tricities,  by  the  intensity  of  the  other,  and 
threatening,  if  brought  into  contact,  an  ex 
plosion  that  may  shake  the  foundations  of  the 
Republic."  On  the  other  hand,  the  American 
party  is  national,  and  Fillmore's  "truth  to  the 
Union  is  made  the  reason  why  Southern  gen 
tlemen,  for  whom  he  ran  the  greatest  risk 
against  the  opinion  of  his  own  region  of  the 
country,  are  to  turn  against  him."  The  North 
has  not  been  guilty  of  any  act  of  State  Legisla 
ture  or  Governor,  "which,  in  the  slightest  de 
gree,  has  sullied  the  honor  or  injured  the  in 
terest  of  the  South."  "There  is  hostility  at 
the  North,"  but  it  is  toward  the  Democratic 
party,  who  vainly  are  claiming  that  the  South 
is  the  object  of  this  hostility.  At  the  last 
Congressional  election,  a  "stubborn  resolution" 
was  manifested  at  the  North.  "No  event  had 
since  transpired  to  show  that  the  Democrats 
had  even  a  plurality  of  the  votes  in  any  State 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line.  The  causes 
of  this  hostility  were"  the  repeal  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  the  enactment  of  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  Act,  and  the  outrages  in  the  Ter 
ritory  of  Kansas,  denied  or  defended  by  the 
Democrats.  As  late  as  1845,  in  the  Texas 
resolution,  the  Democrats  had  recognized  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  Buchanan  had 
voted  for  that  resolution.  The  compromise  of 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  91 

1850  brought  peace  for  a  time  and  the  decline 
of  the  Abolitionists.  That  compromise  was 
due  to  the  efforts  of  Fillmore,  "leading  the 
conservative  men  of  all  parties."  Then  came 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  "an  invitation  for 
all  the  elements  of  strife  to  concentrate  in 
Kansas,"  and  Pierce  made  the  conditions  there 
worse  by  sending  an  incompetent  Governor12 
into  the  Territory.  The  Northern  people  will 
not  vote  for  the  Democratic  nominees  because 
"they  have  blazoned  on  their  banner  the  very 
words  of  the  ambiguous  oracle"  of  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  Act,  "plainly  and  in  bloody  let 
ters,  interpreted  on  the  field  of  Kansas." 

Davis  spoke  "for  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union,"  and  was  "pleading  for  the  great 
rights  of  American  citizens"  and  "for  the 
honor  and  integrity  of  the  American  govern 
ment."  He  and  his  fellows  of  the  American 
party  had  been  attacked  bitterly  by  the  Demo 
crats,  and  now  the  attempt  was  made  to  force 
them  to  vote  for  the  Democratic  candidate 
"because  of  our  connection  with  the  South." 
"So  paramount  do  they  regard  the  allegiance 
to  the  sectional  candidate,  that  they  ask  us  to 
sacrifice  our  personal  preferences,  our  politi 
cal  connections,  our  outraged  dignity,  for 
their  triumph."  He  refused  to  do  this.  "The 
repudiation  of  the  Democratic  party  is  the 
first  condition  and  best  security  for  peace  and 


92         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

safety.  It  silences  the  plea  of  revenge  and 
retaliation.  The  people  of  the  South  owe  it 
to  themselves  and  to  their  future  as  complete 
ly  to  discard  the  Democrats  as  the  people  of  the 
North  have  withdrawn  from  them  their  confi 
dence."  The  threat  of  secession  had  been 
made,  in  case  of  Fremont's  election,  and  Davis 
considered  it  "portentous  to  hear  the  mem 
bers  of  a  party  contesting  for  the  Presidency 
menace  dissolution  and  revolution  as  the  pen 
alty  they  will  inflict  on  the  victor  for  defeat 
ing  them.  People  who  do  not  hold  the  Union 
worth  four  years'  deprivation  of  office  are 
scarcely  safe  depositories  of  its  powers."  Pie 
felt  convinced  that  the  Union  would  not  be 
dissolved,  "until  some  party  bent  upon  acquir 
ing  party  power"  shall  "exasperate,  beyond 
the  reach  of  reason,  Northern  and  Southern 
minds,  as  my  Southern  friends  have  now  exas 
perated  the  Northern  minds.  It  would  be  an 
act  of  suicide,  and  sane  men  do  not  commit 
suicide.  The  act  itself  is  insanity.  It  will  be 
done,  if  ever,  in  a  tempest  of  fury  and  mad 
ness  which  cannot  stop  to  reason.  Dissolution 
means  death — the  suicide  of  liberty  without 
the  hope  of  resurrection."  The  division  of 
territory  of  the  Republic  would  leave  a  "sharp 
and  jagged  chasm,  rending  the  hearts  of  great 
Commonwealths,  lacerated  and  smeared  with 
fraternal  blood." 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857  93 

However  the  election  may  result,  Maryland 
"knows  but  one  country,  and  that  the  Union. 
Her  glory  is  in  it;  her  rights  are  bound  up  in 
it.  Her  children  shed  their  blood  for  it,  and 
they  will  do  it  again.  Beyond  it,  she  knows 
nothing.  She  does  not  reckon  whether  there 
is  more  advantage  in  the  Union  to  the  North 
or  to  the  South;  she  does  not  calculate  its 
value;  nor  does  she  cast  up  an  account  of 
profit  and  loss  on  the  blood  of  her  children." 
Because  Fillmore  "knows  not  where  the  South 
ends  or  the  North  begins,"  Davis  would  fol 
low  him  and  summon  all  men  to  join  him,  in 
the  name  of  the  Union  Fillmore  saved  in  1850. 

Late  in  the  session  (August  13),  when  Pen- 
nington,13a  of  New  Jersey,  moved  that  no 
money  appropriated  for  Kansas  be  paid  until 
every  person  charged  with  treason  in  connec 
tion  with  the  Topeka  Constitution,  be  released 
from  confinement,  and  Grow,13b  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  argued  that  no  prosecution  of  such  per 
sons  ought  to  be  begun,  Davis  said  that  he  felt 
that  the  prosecutions  ought  not  to  proceed, 
that  a  charge  of  constructive  treason  is  a  scan 
dal,  and  that  the  House  had  the  right  to  arrest 
appropriations  in  the  case  of  revolutionary 
necessity.  That  point  had  not  yet  been 
reached,  and  Pennington's  proposal  was, 
therefore,  not  proper,  but  childish.  The  Ad 
ministration  had  tried  the  country  till  it  was 


94         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

at  the  verge  of  civil  war,  and  is  now  seemingly 
about  to  set  free  the  victims  of  months  of  im 
prisonment.  The  "pressure  of  the  Presiden 
tial  contest,  the  necessity  of  party  power,  have 
driven  the  Administration  to  arrest  a  course 
of  misrule,  which  they  have  hitherto  denied 
to  be  misrule,  which  the  ambition  of  party 
power  initiated,  but  which  now  threatened 
those  who  began  it."  These  prosecutions  fur 
nish  ground  for  impeachment,  their  continu 
ance  is  a  "grave  offence,"  their  "final  dismis 
sion  is  a  confession  of  the  original  error." 

National  politics  again  appeared  in  discuss 
ing  the  question  of  suffrage  14  in  the  City  of 
Washington,  when  Davis  defended  the  pro 
posal  that,  after  naturalization,  a  foreigner 
should  wait  for  a  year  to  obtain  voting  privi 
leges,  as  a  person  did  who  moves  to  that  city 
from  another  State.  When  he  has  resided  "as  a 
citizen  for  a  year"  in  the  city  and  has  had  his 
attention  directed  to  the  "municipal  con 
cerns,"  when  he  is  "under  the  influence  of 
those  obligations  of  citizenship,"  then  he  may 
"vote  wisely  upon  the  rights  and  interests  of 
citizens  around  him."  The  "practical  opera 
tion  of  allowing  foreigners  to  vote,  without 
these  qualifications,"  is  that,  on  the  "day  be 
fore  the  election,  the  courthouse  is  crowded 
with  files  of  foreigners  to  take  out  their  pa 
pers,  and  the  next  day  they  go  to  the  polls  to 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  95 

turn  the  balance  against  men,  native  and  for 
eign,  who  have  been  here  ten  or  twenty  years. 
Men  do  this  who  know  nothing  of  the  interest 
of  the  country,  men  who  have  never  had  their 
attention  turned  towards  any  of  the  great  du 
ties  of  American  citizenship,  men  who  have 
so  little  interest  in  becoming  citizens  that  they 
do  not,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  pay  the  fees 
for  their  own  naturalization  papers;  men  who 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  do  not  seek  the  court 
house  of  their  own  accord  to  get  their  natur 
alization  papers;  men  who  are  raked  up  in 
our  cities  and  marched  and  dragged  along  be 
fore  the  tribunals  of  the  United  States  by  men 
who  stand  by  them  to  pay  the  fees  of  naturali 
zation  out  of  their  own  pockets;  men  whose 
papers  are  not  even  confided  to  their  own 
keeping,  but  are  kept  by  politicians  in  their 
own  possession  until  they  are  marched  up  in 
files  to  the  polls  on  the  day  of  election."  No 
party  would  naturalize  men  if  they  could  not 
vote  for  a  year.  The  five  years  a  foreigner 
spends  before  naturalization  form  no  equiva 
lent  for  the  twenty-one  years  of  minority  of 
natives.  "Men  who  have  grown  up  under 
despotic  governments  have  learned  to  obey  au 
thority  from  fear  and,  therefore,  they  look 
upon  authority  not  as  a  power  of  which  they 
are  a  part,  but  as  their  natural  enemy."  In 
Baltimore  the  United  States  Court  sat  on 


96         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

election  day,  so  that  naturalized  voters,  made 
after  the  sun  had  risen,  should  vote  before  it 
went  down.  They  were  no  fit  arbiters  of  the 
affairs  of  the  State.  The  Washington  City 
authorities  did  not  favor  the  proposed  law,15 
and  sent  Davis  a  remonstrance,  which  he  pre 
sented  to  the  House.  The  bill  said  that  if  the 
election  judges  knowingly  refused  to  receive 
the  vote  of  a  legal  voter,  they  are  guilty  of 
crime.  Davis  opposed  this  provision,  since 
neither  in  Maryland  nor  in  Virginia  is  an  elec 
tion  judge  held  responsible  for  drawing  a 
wrong  conclusion  from  facts,  but  only  for  the 
exercise  of  his  judgment.  The  word  cor 
ruptly,  or  an  equivalent,  should  be  inserted, 
if  the  act  is  to  be  considered  a  crime.  "It  is 
not  the  habit,"  he  continued,  "of  this  part  of 
the  country  to  appoint  judicial  officers  and 
then  hold  them  to  the  performance  of  their 
duties  by  penalties."  The  law  was  devised  to 
revolutionize  the  city,  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Administration  in  the  local  elections.  Warm 
ing  to  his  theme,  Davis  continued  his  denun 
ciation  of  the  Democratic  party.  In  "Balti 
more,  where  from  time  immemorial"  they 
"have  made  election  after  election  one  un 
broken  scene  of  violence,  denunciations,  riot, 
bullying  and  bloodshed,"  they  "were  taught  a 
lesson  Jast  fall  which  they  are  not  likely  to  for 
get."  Their  success  in  1852  had  disturbed  the 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857  97 

nation.  "It  was  they  who  made  the  peaceful 
night  horrid  with  their  clank  of  the  fire  bell, 
before  whose  sound  the  prophetic  mind  of 
Jefferson  trembled.  It  was  they  who,  without 
one  petition,  without  any  popular  demand, 
without  any  political  necessity,  without  the 
excuse  of  any  practical  good  hoped  for  or  pre 
tended,  to  the  dismay  of  the  peaceful  millions 
of  the  North,  with  views  of  party  ambition, 
rekindled  the  smoldering  and  dying  embers  of 
the  slavery  war  and  committed  the  nation  to 
the  strife  of  fierce  factions,  of  which  they  are 
most  dangerous."  They  call  themselves  sav 
iours  of  the  Union,  but  they  are  rather  "the 
evil  genii  of  the  Union,  who  first  stirred  those 
subterranean  fires  whence  came  that  earth 
quake  which  lately  rocked  its  deep  founda 
tions."  16 

When  the  publication,  at  the  nation's  ex 
pense,  of  the  papers  of  the  transcontinental 
exploring  expeditions  was  proposed,  Davis 
objected  18  to  the  publication  by  the  Federal 
government  of  picture  books,  or  of  stories  of 
interesting  travels,  as  unconstitutional,  nor 
would  he  print  incompleted  reports,  nor  books 
on  elegant  paper  with  superb  topography,  in 
an  expensive  quarto  form.  He  was  willing, 
however,  to  vote  for  the  printing  of  such  a 
scientific  work  as  a  ''geographical  reconnois- 
sance  of  the  unexplored  territory  of  the  gov- 


98         HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ernment."  He  advocated  the  establishment 
of  a  government  printing  office,  instead  of  do 
ing  printing  by  contract.  He  favored  a  trans 
continental  road  for  military  purposes,  and 
held  that,  if  it  was  right  to  build  it,  it  was  also 
right  to  make  surveys  for  it  and  to  publish 
those  surveys.  "I  think  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  has  the  right  to  make  a 
road  wherever  it  has  the  right  to  send  a  sol 
dier,  or  to  send  a  mail  bag.  I  think  it  is  folly 
to  make  roads  where  roads  are  already  made, 
but  I  think  it  would  be  wisdom  to  make  them 
where  they  are  not  made  and  where  they  are 
necessary  for  the  purpose  of  either  military  or 
postal  transit.  Whether  they  shall  be  made 
here  or  there  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  a  ques 
tion  of  constitutional  power,  but  a  question  of 
expediency,  with  reference  to  the  particular 
work  and  expenditure,  and  one  which  is  ad 
dressed  to  the  discretion  of  government." 

He  favored  an  appropriation  for  a  foreign 
minister  who  went  from  Paraguay  to  Uruguay 
on  a  special  mission,19  as  he  thought  that  the 
officers  of  the  United  States  were  not  slaves  of 
the  government,  so  as  to  owe  all  their  time 
thereto.  An  officer  was  bound  to  take  so  much 
of  his  time  as  is  necessary  to  discharge  the 
service  which  he  is  charged  to  perform,  and 
the  residue  is  at  his  own  disposal.  Conse- 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857  99 

quently,  he  may  receive  extra  pay  for  extra 
services. 

He  was  much  interested  in  the  appropria 
tion  bills.  He  opposed  ffl  an  appropriation  for 
the  Washington  Aqueduct,  as  he  objected  to 
making  local  improvements  with  funds  from 
the  public  treasury,  though  he  was  willing  to 
pay  the  National  Government's  fair  propor 
tion  for  introducing  water.  Three-fourths  of 
the  work  was  in  Maryland,  and  Davis  doubted 
if  the  United  States  possessed  the  right  of  emi 
nent  domain  there.  If  Congress  can  appro 
priate  for  such  a  purpose  as  the  Aqueduct, 
why  can  it  not  also  do  so  for  the  improvement 
of  rivers  and  harbors?  Feeling  that  there  has 
been  a  "laxity  in  the  conduct  of  the  executive 
department,21  running,  it  may  be,  through  sev 
eral  administrations,  which  requires  to  be 
called  to  the  attention  of  the  country,"  Davis 
insisted  that  an  appropriation  should  be  defi 
nite  in  amount.  "Ambiguous  language  is  not 
to  be  construed  in  favor  of  taking  money  from 
the  treasury."  The  creation  of  an  obligation 
is  one  thing,  and  provision  of  funds  to  pay  for 
it  is  another.  The  deficiency  bill  should  not 
contain  appropriations  for  expenditures  of  the 
preceding  year,  because  the  Secretary  of  War 
has  applied  this  year's  appropriation  to  pay 
them.  If  he  may  do  this,  he  may  also  double 
the  military  establishment,  and  the  Executive 


ioo       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

is  emancipated  from  the  control  of  the  Legis 
lature.  Davis  advocated  a  conference  com 
mittee  on  the  Deficiency  bill,  though  he 
thought  that  the  Senate  abused  its  privileges 
by  sending  back  to  the  House  fifty  amend 
ments  to  that  bill  which  should  have  been  in 
other  bills.  He  felt  that  he  had  called  the  at 
tention  of  the  country  to  abuses,  and  could  af 
ford  to  waive  his  opposition,  especially  since 
Mr.  Joseph  Lane  had  told  them  of  the  "inex 
orable  necessity"  which  existed  for  the  pro 
tection  of  the  lives  of  the  people  of  Oregon. 

Davis  advocated  the  payment  of  Ohioans 
who  aided  in  the  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave 
law,  as  it  was  wrong  not  to  appropriate  money 
needed  to  carry  out  any  law,  and  he  praised 
the  Bostonians  who  helped  to  seize  a  fugitive 
slave.  A  colloquy,  in  excellent  temper,  fol 
lowed  with  Joshua  S.  Giddings,  the  anti- 
slavery  representative  of  the  Western  Reserve. 
In  the  course  of  it,  Davis  said  that  Jefferson 
was  the  higher  law  man  of  his  day,  and  in  the 
Alien  Act  showed  himself  an  unsafe  guide  in 
construing  the  Constitution  and  in  adminis 
tering  the  law.  The  higher  law  doctrine, 
"like  noxious  weeds,  grows  from  year  to  year." 
Fillmore  is  to  be  praised,  because  he  did  not 
shrink  from  executing  laws.  The  Abolition 
ists  are  not  the  only  partisans  of  the  higher 
law,  for  the  "strict  construction,  secession  gen- 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857          101 

tlemen,  who  only  meant  to  apply  the  dogma  in 
extreme  cases,  of  which  they  are  to  be  the 
judges,  stand  upon  the  platform  of  Gid- 
dings."24 

Baltimore  politics  were  very  turbulent  in 
1 856.  Eight  years  later 25  Davis  told  the  House 
of  Representatives  that  the  Democrats,  "furi 
ous"  at  his  election,  "organized  for  the  elec 
tions  of  1856.  The  great  Irish  ward  was  a 
vast  arsenal,  and  men  marched  forth  in  battle 
array  and  fired  deliberately  volleys  into  peace 
ful  crowds  at  a  neighboring  precinct.  In 
stantly  it  was  replied  to.  But  the  Irishmen 
could  not  meet  the  young  American  mechan 
ics,  and  again  the  Democrats  mourned  defeat, 
while  we  grieved  over  our  friends  treacher 
ously  slain.  We  had  either  to  be  driven  from 
the  polls  or  fight,  and  our  young  men  prefer 
red  the  latter  alternative." 

In  the  second  session  of  this  Congress 
Davis's  chief  activity  was  in  connection  with 
an  investigation  of  charges  of  corruption 
against  certain  members.  He  supported  a  bill 
for  their  punishment,26  containing  a  section 
providing  that  any  person  testifying  upon  the 
subject  before  the  investigating  committee 
should  be  free  from  prosecution,  which  pro 
vision  he  believed  to  be  in  accordance  with 
the  Common  Law  both  of  England  and  the 
United  States,  and  he  reported  for  the  com- 


HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

mittee,  moving  the  expulsion  of  two  of  the  in 
culpated  persons.27 

When  the  votes  for  President  were  counted, 
Davis  said  ffl  "the  only  purpose  of  assembling 
here  is  to  identify  the  things  which  are  sent 
here  as  votes.  The  act  is  a  ministerial  and  not 
a  judicial  one.  "Until  the  House  has  a  mo 
tion  before  it  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a 
President,  their  act  is  extra  judicial."  The 
Constitution  does  not  "ask  judgment  by  any  one 
on  a  mere  count,  and  does  not  say  that  any  one 
shall  be  declared  President;  but,  merely,  that 
the  votes  shall  be  counted,  and  he  who  has  a 
majority  shall  be  President,  not  declared  Pres 
ident,  for  the  law  declares  him.  When  called 
on  to  elect  a  President,  we  settle  that  result 
that  there  is  an  election,  by  refusing  to  go  on 
and  perform  that  duty." 

He  had  previously  expressed  himself  with 
great  force  on  the  teachings  of  the  late  elec 
tion,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  on 
January  6.29  The  President's  message  was  un 
der  discussion,  and  Davis  maintained  that 
Pierce's  words  therein  had  given  rise  to  the 
fierce  debate  on  the  meaning  of  the  Presiden 
tial  election,  in  which  the  House  was  engaged. 
Davis  vehemently  attacked  that  "extraordi 
nary  document,"  which  showed  the  bitterness 
of  a  spirit  "broken  by  such  a  fall."  He  espe 
cially  objected  to  Pierce's  statement  that,  as 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857          103 

Senators  represent  their  respective  States  and 
Congressmen  their  constituents,  so  "the  Presi 
dent  represents  the  aggregate  population  of 
the  United  States."  Pierce's  statement  is  one 
of  "sinister  import,"  assigning  "our  lower 
sphere,  where  we  should  not  behave  unseem 
ly."  If  it  be  true,  however,  then  Buchanan, 
who  received  a  minority  of  the  popular  vote, 
"misrepresents  the  people."  In  summing  up 
the  lessons  of  the  election  in  his  message, 
Pierce  had  departed  "from  the  severe  cour 
tesy,  the  respectful  reserve,  the  passionless  dig 
nity,  observed  by  his  predecessors  in  alluding 
to  the  conduct  of  sovereign  States,  or  the  mo 
tives  of  great  bodies  of  the  people  in  the  high 
est  function  of  their  sovereignty;"  had  "for 
gotten  the  President  in  the  partisan,  and  in 
flamed  the  passions  already  consuming  the  vi 
tals  of  the  Republic."  The  election  had  not 
only  proved  that  a  minority  of  the  people  de 
sired  Buchanan  as  President,  favored  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  Act  and  approved  of  Pierce's 
administration;  but  also  that  this  minority 
"was  so  located,  in  various  States,  that  under 
the  Constitution  it  could  cast  a  majority  of  the 
votes  of  the  Electoral  College."  The  election 
also  demonstrated  that  the  "blast  which  pros 
trated"  the  friends  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Act  at  the  "North  was  no  passing  squall;  that 
no  sober  second  thought  had  changed  their 


io4       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

first  thought;  but  that  a  settled  and  unchange- 
.  .•  hostility  through  all  the  North  condemns 
them  to  a  hopeless  and  pitiable  minority." 
The  Democratic  party  had  been  really  con 
demned.  "The  great  majority  of  the  country 
are  tired  of  its  men.  are  hostile  to  its  princi 
ples,  condemn  its  measures,  mock  at  its  blun 
ders,  are  weary  of  its  agitations,  abhor  its  sec 
tional  warfare  and  have  ordered  a  hue  and  on 
to  be  made  against  everything  bearing  the 
name  of  Democrat,  as  disturber  of  the  public 
peace."  That  party,  whose  "domination  in 
the  Executive  chair"  will  continue,  because 
people  "were  so  unfortunate  as  to  differ  as  to 
the  measure  of  redress,"  has  long  been  divided 
on  the  questions  of  protection  and  internal  im 
provement,  and  now,  on  the  question  of  slav 
ery,  has  become  widely  divided  "upon  exactly 
the  same  question  of  constitutional  power  that 
rests  at  the  bottom  of  the  words  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act."  The  language  of  this  Act, 
a:  Alexander  H.  Stephens  had  just  said,  con 
ferred  by  grant  "upon  the  people  of  the  Ter 
ritories  all  the  legislative  powers  that  Con 
gress  can  confer."  The  dispute  was  as  to 
whether  these  people  can  exercise  their  legis 
lative  power  concerning  slavery  now,"  in  their 
1  erritorial  condition."  This  dispute  was  not 
a  "mere  difference  of  interpretation,"  but  a 
"radical,  inherent,  profound  difference"  as  to 


CHAPTER  ¥—1855-1857          105 

Congressional  power,  "splitting  them  from 
top  to  bottom."  On  this  question,  as  to 
whether  the  Act  ought  to  have  been  passed, 
the  election  of  an  anti-Kansas  Act  majority  of 
the  House  in  1854  gave  the  answer  of  the 
\vhole  North,  but  the  North  entered  on  a  con 
test  "of  reprisal  and  retaliation,  revenge  and 
conquest,  not  defense  and  restoration."  South 
ern  Democrats  claimed  the  "law  as  a  great 
Southern  triumph,  not  merely  in  point  of 
principle,  but  in  point  of  policy  and  fact,  as 
opening  a  hitherto  barred  territory  to  slavery 
and  giving  a  chance  for  another  slave  State  to 
restore  the  disturbed  equilibrium  of  the 
Union."  On  the  other  hand,  Northern  Demo 
crats  argued:  "It  is  the  best  measure  for  free 
dom,  it  breaks  dowrn  all  the  compromises;  it 
leaves  the  question  open;  it  confers  legislative 
power  upon  the  people  of  the  Territory.  You 
will  never  hear  of  another  slave  State;  we  will 
make  Kansas  a  free  State;  and,  therefore,  we 
are  willing  to  abide  by  the  principles  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  because,  although  it 
ought  not  to  have  been  passed,  it  perhaps  will 
do  no  harm/'  So  arguing,  they  even  printed 
on  handbills:  "Buchanan,  Breckenridge,  and 
Free  Kansas."  Davis  believed  that  it  touched 
the  "dignity  of  the  South  more"  to  have  the 
slavery  question  settled  by  the  rude  back 
woodsman/'  under  the  doctrine  of  squatter 


io6       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

sovereignty,  than  in  Congress  in  "solemn  con 
sultation,"  where  partition  might  be  made,  so 
that  peace  should  reign.  He  still  favored  com 
promise  and  eulogized  the  "very  purpose  and 
principle  of  the  Act  of  1820,"  which  "were  to 
vindicate  the  equality  of  States  and  the  right 
of  the  people  to  form  their  own  constitution 
without  control."  In  advocating  that  compro 
mise,  William  Pinkney's  "words  of  glory,  vin 
dicating  the  absolute  equality  of  the  States 
against  the  usurpation  of  the  United  States, 
form  the  fit  prelude  to  that  equal  argument  of 
the  man  of  Massachusetts  who,  ten  years  after, 
maintained  the  supremacy  of  the  United 
States  against  the  encroachments  of  the  States. 
On  those  cyclopean  foundations  have  we  rest 
ed,  and  still  unshaken  rest,  those  two  pillars  of 
the  Constitution,  the  absolute  and  inalienable 
equality  of  the  States  in  their  sovereign  func 
tion,  and  the  equally  absolute  supremacy  of 
the  United  States  within  the  sphere  of  their 
conceded  powers."  Davis  thought  the  Kan 
sas  Act  an  "electioneering  manoeuvre"  which 
had  "secured  neither  a  territory,  nor  a  State, 
nor  a  constitutional  principle,  nor  peace"  to 
the  South,  but  had  reopened  a  "dangerous  agi 
tation"  and  divided  the  Democrats.  Their 
party  was  no  longer  a  "homogeneous  body," 
and  it  won  the  Presidential  election,  because  it 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857          107 

obtained  the  votes  of  the  "foreign  recruits  in 
Pennsylvania." 

The  election  had  also  shown  that  the  Re 
publicans  could  not  win.  The  people  "will 
not  sanction  a  merely  sectional  canvass  for  the 
Presidency,  nor  intrust  with  the  government  a 
party  whose  whole  power  is  confined  to  one- 
half  the  States,  whatever  their  purposes  may 
be.  They  will  not  sanction  retaliation  as  the 
spirit  in  which  wrong  is  to  be  repressed.  They 
think  that  the  evils  of  civil  war  are  greater 
than  the  evils  of  another  slave  Territory,  and 
the  policy  of  the  Republican  party,  while  it 
did  not  justify,  did  tend  to  kindle  war."  The 
success  of  that  party  would  have  involved  the 
"exclusion  of  every  Southern  gentleman  from 
office,"  and  one-half  of  the  people  would  have 
had  no  voice  in  the  government.  Davis  held 
that  "the  condition  on  which  alone  any  party 
can  fitly  be  entrusted  with  the  government  is 
the  possession  of  power  and  friends  enough, 
everywhere,  to  carry  on  the  government  with 
the  men  of  the  State  to  be  governed,  so  that  a 
domestic  government  shall  not  assume  the 
form  of  foreign  domination.  Instruments  of 
any  power  may  always  everywhere  be  found; 
but  the  office,  in  such  hands,  partakes  of  the 
nature  of  despotism,  and  such  men  alone  were 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Republican  party  in  one- 
half  the  States  of  the  Union."  The  Republi- 


io8       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

can  party  was  a  hasty  levy,  en  masse,  of  the 
Northern  people,"  and  "has  no  future,"  but 
must  pass  away  with  its  occasion.  From  both 
Democratic  and  Republican  parties  "the  eye 
of  the  country  turns  with  hope"  to  "the  ranks 
of  the  American  party,  thinned  by  desertions, 
but  still  unshaken."  That  party  "alone  is  free 
from  sectional  affiliations  at  either  end  of  the 
Union,  which  would  cripple  it  at  the  other. 
Its  principle  is  silence,  peace  and  compromise. 
It  abides  by  the  existing  law.  It  allows  no 
agitation.  It  maintains  the  present  condition 
of  affairs.  It  asks  no  change  in  any  Territory, 
and  it  will  countenance  no  agitation  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  any  section."  Its  "high 
mission"  was  "to  exclude  appeals  to  foreign 
birth,  or  religious  feeling,  as  elements  of 
power  in  politics,  to  silence  the  voice  of  sec 
tional  strife — not  by  joining  either,  but  by  re 
calling  the  people  from  a  profitless  contro 
versy."  The  "sound  position  of  the  American 
party"  was  to  hold  "silence  on  the  slavery 
agitation.  Leave  the  Territories  as  they  are— 
to  the  operation  of  natural  causes.  Prevent 
aggression  by  excluding  from  power  the  ag 
gressors.  Awake  the  national  spirit  to  the 
danger  and  degradation  of  having  the  balance 
of  power  held  by  foreigners." 

Shortly    before    the    Congress    adjourned 
Davis  was  married  a  second  time,  on  January 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857          109 

26,  1857,  to  Miss  Nancy  Morris,  daughter  of 
John  B.  Morris,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  who  sur 
vived  him  with  two  daughters.30  In  the  early 
part  of  his  married  life  he  spent  a  winter  in 
the  household  of  his  father-in-law.  He  was 
rather  a  quiet  man  in  his  home,  not  speaking 
frequently,  but  occasionally  pouring  forth 
long  speeches  in  eloquent  form;  not  smiling 
often,  but  breaking  forth  in  a  sudden  laugh, 
when  something  appealed  to  him  as  amusing. 

NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  V. 

1.  Speech  of  May  9,  1864. 

2.  In  the  newspapers  there  was  some  correspondence  between 
him  and  Mr.  Henry  May,  his  Democratic  opponent.  At  lease  three 
pamphlets  appeared  against  Davis,     i,  "Portrait  of  Henry  Win 
ter  Davis,  Esq.,  by  his  own  hand,"  which  said  that  "his  politi 
cal  inconsistencies  were  daguerreotyped  in  colors  warranted  not 
to  fade,  as  his  principles  have  always  done  under  the  corroding 
touch  of  time,"   and  that  in  the  American  Sentinel  of  October 
22,  1855,  Davis  had  asserted  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  Ordi 
nance  of  1787;  2,  "A  Review  of  Mr.  Henry  Winter  Davis  and 
Free  Soilism,"  which  asserted  that  at  the  table  he  always  took 
the  Free   Soil   side;   and  3,   "Read   and  Judge  for  Yourself:  A 
Review   of   the   Pamphlet   of   Henry   Winter   Davis,"   i.   e.,   the 
Origin,  etc.,  of  the  American  Party. 

3.  On  May  9,  1864. 

4.  E.  J.  Walker,  of  Alabama,  voted  for  him  on  December  4, 
and  W.  R.  Smith  on  December  6. 

43.  Harris  (1821-1898)  was  member  of  Congress  from  1855 
to  1861.  He  was  the  reform  candidate  for  Governor  in  1876, 
and  was  a  scholarly  lawyer  and  a  high-toned,  courteous,  Chris 
tian  gentleman  of  the  old  school. 

5.  E.  G.  December  3  for  Marshall,  December  4  for  Walker, 
Lake  and  Valk,  December  6  for  Wheeler. 


i  io       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

53.  Felix  M.  Zollicoffer,  of  Tennessee   (1812-1862). 

5b.  Thomas  J.  D.  Fuller,  of  Maine  (1808-1876). 

50.  William  A.  Richardson,  of  Illinois  (1811-1875). 

5d.  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts   (1816-1894). 

5e.  William  Aiken,  of  South  Carolina   (1806-1887). 

5f.  Elisha  D.  Cullen   (1799-1862). 

6.  Vide  I,  Elaine,  Twenty  Years,  122. 

7.  3    Pierce's    Sumner,   489.     Lawrence   M.   Keith,   of   South 
Carolina   (1824-1864). 

8.  On  February  28  he  had  favored   a  grant  of  an  addition 
to  the  salary  of  the  Governor  of  New  Mexico,  as  he  had  acted 
as  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs.     On  the  same  day  he  in 
troduced  bills  for  the  improvement  of  the  Patapsco  and  for  con 
necting  it  with  the  Susquehanna. 

9.     Gail  Hamilton's  Elaine,  112. 

10.  On  April   29  he  opposed  postponement  of  a  Nebraskan 
contested  election  case. 

11.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  39. 

12.  Andrew  Horatio  Reeder  (1807-1864). 

13.  On  August  13. 

133.     William  S.  Pennington   (1796-1862). 
i3b.     Galusha  A.  Grow    (1827-1907). 

14.  On  March  25. 

15.  On  May  14  and  15. 

1 6.  Howell   Cobb  answered  this  speech. 

17.  On  April  2. 

1 8.  On  April  i  he  had  opposed  the  purchase  of  Alden's  In 
dex  to  the  Supreme  Court  Reports. 

19.  On   April   n. 

20.  On  April  14. 

21.  On  April  25. 

22.  On  April  29. 


CHAPTER  V— 1855-1857          in 

23.  On  May  9. 

24.  On  August  7,  under  instructions  from  the  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means,  he  offered  an  amendment  to  the  Civil  Appro 
priation  Bill,  appropriating  $200,000  for  a  United  States  Court 
House  in  Baltimore,  expecting  later  to  provide  for  a  separate 
Post  Office  building.       On  the  8th  he  opposed,  as  improvident, 
Bowie's  proposition  to  appropriate  $267,000  for  the  purchase  of 
the  Merchants'  Exchange  in  Baltimore  for  government  uses. 

25.  On  May  9,  1864. 

26.  On  January  21  and  22. 

27.  On  February  n,  25,  27,  28.     On  February  24  he  advo 
cated  relieving  persons  who  had  suffered  in  a  fire  when  their 
goods  were  in  bond. 

28.  On  February  n. 

29.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  63. 

30.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXI.     Mrs.  Davis  died  in  1902. 
One  daughter  died  young. 


ii2       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    THIRTY-FOURTH    CONGRESS 

(1857-59). 

In  the  autumn  of  1857  a  Governor  of  Mary 
land  was  chosen.  Seven  years  later,  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,1  Davis 
thus  spoke  of  the  fall  campaign :  "The  Ameri 
cans,  having  got  possession  of  power,  did  what 
the  Democrats  had  refused  to  do,  organized 
the  police  and  armed  it,  for  we  did  not  choose 
that,  while  we  were  in  power,  ruffians  should 
make  an  election  a  question  not  merely  of 
numbers,  but  of  power.  Representatives  of 
the  majesty  of  the  law,  we  meant  to  enforce 
submission  to  it,  and  we  organized  and  armed 
a  strong  police  force  and  it  accomplished  its 
purpose  and  kept  the  peace."  At  the  munici 
pal  election  Davis  claimed  that  "peace  and 
quiet"  reigned  throughout  the  city,  except  in 
the  Eighth  ward,  "where  the  Irish  took  pos 
session  of  houses  and  armed  themselves  and 
shot  at  the  police  as  they  passed,  and  thrice 
marched  to  attack  Americans  at  the  polls,  and 
as  often  they  were  dispersed.  The  police  sup 
pressed  every  attempt  at  disturbance,  without 
hurting  one  of  the  villains  who  were  aiming  at 
their  lives  and  who  killed  several  of  them." 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         113 

The  Gubernatorial  election  occurred  a  fort 
night  later.  The  Democratic  Governor, 
Thomas  W.  Ligon,2  thought,  said  Davis,  that 
"nothing  could  defeat  the  Americans  but  the 
employment  of  organized  militia,"  and  called 
out  six  thousand  men,  armed  with  muskets 
borrowed  from  Governor  Henry  A.  Wise,  of 
Virginia.  "Negotiations  passed"  to  which 
Davis  was  a  party  and  in  which  Thomas 
Swann,  the  Mayor, "showed  indomitable  firm 
ness."  Davis  approved  Swann's  action  and 
advised  him  to  yield  nothing.  Ligon  "sent  en 
rolling  officers  through  the  streets  to  find  men 
to  hold  Wise's  muskets,"  but  failed.  Then 
Ligon,  "disgusted  at  his  own  abortive  attempt 
at  military  dictation,  issued  a  final  order"  that, 
having  secured  the  "object  of  his  intervention, 
he  would  not  use  force,  and  slunk  from  the 
city  which  had  tolerated  his  presence.  After 
the  negotiations  had  gone  on  all  night,  the 
broad  place  before  the  Holiday  Street  The 
atre  was  packed  with  Swann's  partisans,  while 
Irish  not  far  off,  with  clenched  fists  and  yells, 
menaced  them,  without  being  able  to  provoke 
a  word."  One  of  Ligon's  advisers  saw  that 
assembly  over  Swann's  shoulder,  and,  going 
out  of  the  back  gate,  told  the  Governor,  who, 
after  receiving  that  news,  desisted  from  his 
efforts.  The  election  "passed  quietly  as  a  Sab 
bath  and  the  people  recorded  their  reproba- 


ii4       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tion  of  this  illegal  attempt"  by  electing 
Thomas  Holliday  Hicks,  the  American  can 
didate,  as  Governor.3  In  the  Congressional 
election  Davis  received  10,515  votes  to  3,979 
cast  for  Brooks,  his  opponent.4  On  May  9. 
1864,  Davis  said  that  in  the  contest  over  this 
election  proof  had  been  given  of  only  26  ille 
gal  votes  and  of  40  or  50  cases  of  assault.  Both 
sides  contained  violent  men.  Voters  were 
prodded  with  awls  at  the  polls,  and  the  charge 
was  made  against  Davis  that  he  spoke  at  a 
meeting  in  Monument  Square  with  a  gigantic 
awl  suspended  above  his  head.5  Davis's  fear 
lessness  is  shown  by  an  anecdote  told  of  his 
campaigning.  A  Democratic  club  had  sworn 
to  mob  him  if  he  spoke  at  the  Cross  Street 
Market  Hall.  On  the  appointed  evening,  in 
an  open  carriage,  wearing  a  full-dress  suit, 
white  gloves  and  a  silk  hat,  he  drove  to  the 
hall  and  walked  through  the  crowd  to  the 
stage.  There  he  stood,  facing  the  audience, 
placed  his  hat  on  a  table  and,  slowly  drawing 
his  gloves  from  his  fingers,  dropped  them  into 
the  hat  and  then  began  an  eloquent  speech. 
The  crowd,  awed  by  his  personality,  listened 
intently,  and  as  they  left  the  hall  a  man  was 
heard  to  say:  "That's  the  man  for  my  vote. 
He  as  good  as  said,  'damn  you,  I  don't  care 
for  you — put  that  in  your  pipe  and  smoke  it." 
The  party  rancor  of  that  time  is  shown  in  a 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         115 

curious  incident.  On  December  23,  1857, 
representatives  of  the  Jefferson,  Washington 
and  Columbian  Societies  of  the  University  of 
Virginia  wrote  to  invite  Davis  to  address  them 
in  the  coming  June.  He  accepted  this  invi 
tation,  writing  from  Washington  on  January 
4,  1858,  and  regretting  that  he  had  not  visited 
the  University  since  he  "left  it  for  active  life, 
seventeen  years  ago."  The  Jefferson  and 
Washington  Societies  soon  withdrew  their  in 
vitation,  but  the  Columbian  Society  wrote,  on 
January  26,  expressing  regret  at  the  action  of 
the  other  societies,  "which  was  either  on  ac 
count  of  political  feelings  or  local  preju 
dices,"  and  requested  Davis  to  deliver  the  ad 
dress  before  the  Columbian  Society  alone. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1857, 
Henry  P.  Brooks  contested  Davis's  right  to 
his  seat,  and  William  Pinkney  Whyte,  in  the 
other  Baltimore  district,  contested  Harris's. 
In  both  cases  it  was  alleged  that  there  was  no 
fair  opportunity  in  Baltimore  to  exercise  the 
right  of  suffrage.  The  election  committee 
reported 6  that  it  was  inexpedient  to  grant 
Brooks's  prayer  for  the  appointment  of  a  com 
mittee  to  take  testimony  at  the  public  expense. 
He  should  be  left  to  take  testimony  at  his  own 
expense,  as  Whyte  was  doing,  having  also 
been  refused  this  desired  privilege.  No  law 
less  condition  prevented  this  course.  This 


ii6       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

report  was  discussed  on  the  i6th  and 
and  was  approved  by  a  vote  of  115  to  89.  On 
the  i6th  Thomas  F.  Bowie,  a  Maryland  Dem 
ocrat,  made  a  speech  against  Davis,  full  of 
sound  and  fury,  and  two  days  later,  when 
Davis  rose  to  the  question  of  personal  privi 
lege  to  ask  an  explanation  of  Bowie's  lan 
guage,  the  latter  retracted  his  words,  saying 
that  from  his  "inmost  soul"  he  "abhorred  the 
principles  of  the  Know  Nothing  party,"  but 
did  not  "in  any  personal  sense"  refer  to 
Davis.  The  contest  dragged  on  until  May 
19,  when  the  House  discharged  the  Election 
Committee  from  further  consideration  of 
Brooks's  memorial.  In  the  following  month,7 
similar  disposition  was  made  of  the  other  con 
test  from  Baltimore. 

At  that  time  there  were  a  Mayor  and  Coun 
cil  in  Washington  City  elected  by  the  resi 
dents.  Among  the  voters  were  many  tempo 
rary  ones,  "including  possibly  a  thousand 
Government  clerks,  who  look  to  leaving 
Washington  at  the  end  of  four  years,"  and  a 
"swarm  of  laborers  on  the  public  works." 
Davis  felt  that  neither  of  these  classes  could 
be  said  to  be  identified  with  the  interests  of 
the  city,  yet  they  controlled  its  destiny,  casting 
from  a  fourth  to  a  third  of  the  six  thousand 
votes.  Riots  had  occurred  at  the  last  election, 
at  which  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Mayor 


CHAPTER  VI— 1857-1859         117 

had  been  elected  by  a  plurality  of  26  votes, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Federal  Admin 
istration.  At  these  riots  the  marines  had  been 
ordered  out,  and,  firing  on  the  mob,  killed 
fourteen  men  and  wounded  twenty  more. 
Thirty-four  persons  were  indicted  for  riot  by 
the  grand  jury,  on  which  there  was  not  a 
single  member  of  the  American  party,  while 
no  investigation  was  made  of  the  firing  by  the 
marines,  whom  Davis  asserted  the  President 
had  no  right  to  call  out,  as  the  Marshal  had 
not  been  called  upon  to  quell  the  disturbance. 
Davis  defended  the  accused  men,  who  were 
not  convicted,  although  tried  before  a  petit 
jury,  selected  from  a  panel  of  whose  thirty- 
two  members  only  four  were  Know  Nothings. 
On  the  floor  of  the  House,8  he  attacked  the 
Administration  and  denied  that  his  party 
caused  the  riot. 

His  interest  in  local  affairs  was  shown  in 
his  introducing  a  bill 9  for  the  improvement 
of  the  Patapsco  River,  so  as  to  make  the  port 
of  Baltimore  accessible  to  war  vessels  of  the 
United  States.  He  gloried  10  that  Maryland 
sold  interest-bearing  funds,  borrowed  money 
and  paid  interest  on  it,  so  that  the  War  of 
1812  could  be  carried  on.  Her  claim  was 
settled  on  equitable  principles11  in  1826. 

In  opposing  the  Treasury  Note  bill,  which 
was  making  "a  perpetual,  irredeemable  cur- 


ii8       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

rency  the  very  material  of  exchange,"  though 
the  Administration  had  spoken  against  the 
evils  of  paper  currency,  Davis  maintained 
that  "we  have  now  a  perfectly  sound  paper 
currency  throughout  the  country,  because  the 
banks  have  not  broken.  Merchants  have 
broken,  but  the  banks  have  not  broken.  The 
paper  has  not  been  returned  to  them.  It  is 
still  in  circulation.  Now  the  Treasury  wishes 
to  increase  the  paper  currency,  to  the  ex 
tent  of  twenty  millions,  and,  therefore, 
either  inflates  the  currency,  or  substitutes 
the  credit  of  the  Government  for  it."  "The 
Government  had  locked  money  in  its  vaults, 
through  the  Sub-treasury  system,  more  than 
was  needful,  and  the  speculative  tendencies  of 
the  country  had  been  pushed  on  by  the  tariff 
policy  of  the  administration,  so  that  a  panic 
occurred,  which  was  not  rapidly  passing 
away."  During  this  panic  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  had  been  guilty  of  a  "grave 
financial  error,"  in  purchasing  "United  States 
stock"  at  a  premium.12  Davis  supported  Stan- 
ton's  proposal 13  for  investigation  of  the 
charges  of  bribery  in  connection  with  the  pas 
sage  of  the  tariff  of  1857.  He  voted  against 
all  the  tariff  bills,  and,  standing  "in  terror  of 
no  press,"  said  that  he  usually  held  newspaper 
charges  in  such  contempt  that  the  only  notice 
he  would  take  of  them  would  be  to  bring 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         119 

them  to  a  grand  jury.  Here,  however,  the 
charge  was  that  money  was  used.  This  may 
have  been  done  legitimately,  so  that  he  wished 
that  technicalities,  delay  and  secrecy  might  be 
taken  away  in  the  investigation,  and  that  a 
committee,  sitting  as  commissioners,  should 
take  evidence  and  lay  the  result  before  the 
House,  which  could  then  determine  whether 
to  put  the  parties  on  trial.  Davis  advocated 
the  inclusion  of  a  clause  in  the  Consular  and 
Diplomatic  bill,14  providing  that  the  money 
appropriated  therein  be  not  applied  to  meet 
expenses  accruing  before  or  after  the  fiscal 
year,  so  that  there  may  be  a  readjustment  of 
accounts  and  a  review  of  the  expediency  of 
the  appropriations  every  year.  This  limita 
tion  should  not  prevent  appropriations  for  ob 
jects  of  permanent  interest,  such  as  buildings, 
but  would  prevent  squandering  and  misappli 
cation  of  public  funds  and  would  give  Con 
gress  greater  control  of  the  Administration.15 

Always  interested  in  the  proposal  to  build 
a  Pacific  railroad,  he  found  authority  therefor 
in  the  powers  to  establish  post  roads,  to  pro 
vide  for  the  common  defence,  to  carry  on  war 
by  providing  transportation  for  troops,  where 
Jefferson  found  authority  to  begin  the  Na 
tional  road,  where  Monroe,  Madison,  Adams 
and  Jackson  found  authority  to  vote  for  the 
Chesapeake  and  Delaware  Canal,  and  where 


120       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Congress  found  authority  to  enter  the  soil  of 
Maryland  for  the  Washington  aqueduct,  to 
declare  the  great  navigable  waters  of  the 
West  perpetual  channels  of  commerce,  to 
make  the  Wheeling  bridge  a  post  road,  and 
to  build  postoffice  buildings.16 

When  a  resolution  was  pending  to  expel  the 
delegate  from  Utah,  inasmuch  as  the  Terri 
tory  was  in  open  rebellion,  Davis,  in  opposi 
tion,17  said:  "If  there  is  resistance,  in  either 
a  Territory  or  State,  it  is  not,  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  and  cannot  be  a  resistance  of  the  legal 
authorities  of  the  Territory  and,  therefore, 
cannot  be  regarded  as  the  resistance  of  the 
Territory  itself;  but  certain  evil-disposed  per 
sons  within  the  limits  of  the  territory,  under 
the  guise  of  its  authority,  are  resisting  the 
laws  that  bind  them."  Such  was  his  view  of 
the  constitutional  relation  of  citizen  to  the 
Union.  It  might  be  an  appropriate  subject 
for  inquiry,  whether  there  be  "an  illegal  and 
organized  combination  of  evil-minded  citi 
zens  who  have  banded  themselves  together  to 
resist  the  authority  of  the  United  States."  If 
any  territorial  officers  take  part  in  such  re 
bellion,  the  President  can  remove  them.  If 
the  delegate  has  countenanced  an  illegal  com 
bination  against  the  Federal  laws,  he  should 
be  expelled;  but  if  he  is  loyal,  "though  that 
rebellion  should  include  every  citizen  in  the 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         121 

Territory  except  one,  still  he  stands  here  as 
the  representative  of  the  legal  rights  of  that 
one  man  in  that  Territory.  Nay,  sir,  he  stands 
here  as  the  representative  of  the  rebellious 
children  of  the  Republic.  He  stands  here  to 
see  that  those  who  have  committed  treason 
shall  be  tried  fairly  under  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States.  He  stands 
here  to  see  that  the  laws  are  carried  out  which 
protect  the  man  who  has  been  guilty  of  trea 
son  from  the  outrage  and  violence  which  mili 
tary  authority  visits  upon  political  offenders." 
In  these  fiery  words  did  he  define  his  position, 
which  he  was  forced  by  the  logic  of  events  to 
take  again  within  a  few  years  in  a  much  more 
serious  emergency. 

He  opposed  the  admission  of  Kansas  under 
the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  on  March 
30 18  addressed  the  House  on  that  subject. 
Having  previously  voted  against  admitting 
Kansas  as  a  State  under  the  Topeka  free  State 
constitution,  he  felt  he  occupied  an  advan 
tageous  position  in  the  debate.  No  higher 
proof  of  his  ability  as  a  constitutional  lawyer 
can  be  given  than  his  discussion  of  the  admis 
sion  of  States  in  that  speech.  He  began  by 
expressing  surprise  that  "an  Administration 
which  professes  to  be  the  godfather  of  "popu 
lar  sovereignty"  should  oppose  the  submission 
of  a  Constitution  to  the  popular  vote;  that  an 


122       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Administration,  which  is  in  name  Demo 
cratic,  should  propose  to  impose  upon  the  ma 
jority  the  will  of  the  minority."  However, 
Davis  saw  in  the  movement  an  attempt  "to 
prevent  the  Administration,  which  boasted 
itself  the  omnipotent  pacificator,  from  being 
brought  to  lick  the  dust,  now,  ere  the  termi 
nation  of  the  first  session  of  its  first  Congress." 

Davis  demanded  proof  that  the  "piece  of 
parchment"  produced  by  the  Administration 
contained  "the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas." 
Buchanan's  followers  asked  that  Kansas  be 
admitted  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution, 
"for  the  sake  of  the  principle  involved." 
Davis  asked:  what  was  the  principle?  He 
could  not  accept  it  as  a  principle  that  2,200 
men  who  had  voted  for  the  members  of  the 
convention  at  Lecompton,  should  "make  their 
will  the  law"  over  10,000  who  voted  against 
ratifying  the  constitution  framed  there;  nor 
that  the  people  of  a  Territory  had  a  "legal 
right  themselves  to  take  the  initiative  and  lay 
upon  your  table  a  constitution"  the  acceptance 
of  which  they  are  entitled  to  demand;  nor  that 
any  constitution  containing  "a  clause  sanction 
ing  slavery"  must  be  accepted.  He  would  not 
reject  the  constitution  because  slavery  was 
"embraced"  therein.  "If  put  there  by  the  will 
of  the  people,  it  ought  not  to  weigh  with  the 
weight  of  the  dust  in  the  balance  upon  the 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         123 

question,  for  to  allow  that  to  be  a  ground  of 
exclusion  would  be  unwise  and  would  exhibit 
an  unsocial  disposition,"  which  would  "lead  to 
nothing  but  disastrous  civil  collisions." 

Davis  especially  dissented  from  the  position 
that  Congress  was  bound  to  accept  what  the 
Territory  had  sent.  They  might  inquire 
"whether  there  be  here  legal  authority, 
whether  here  the  ballot-box  has  been  protect 
ed,  how  many  stayed  from  the  polls,  or  why 
they  did  so." 

"All  that  is  necessary,"  argued  Davis,  "to 
the  admission  of  a  State,  is  the  concurrence  of 
the  will  of  the  people  of  a  Territory  and  of 
Congress.  The  application  of  a  Territory  to 
be  admitted  as  a  State  is  only  a  petition  upon 
your  table — an  offer  upon  their  part  which 
we  may  accept  or  which  we  may  reject  at  our 
pleasure.  After  that  concurrence,  it  has  been 
ingrafted  into  the  living  body  politic  of  the 
country,  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh  of  our  flesh, 
to  share  with  us  for  good  or  evil,  to  the  end  of 
time,  the  blessings  or  misfortunes  of  the  Re 
public — to  be  severed  by  nothing  except  that 
external  violence  which  shall  lop  off  some 
living  limb  of  the  Republic,"  or  by  civil 
strife.  With  great  acumen  he  proceeded  to 
state  that  enabling  acts  "are  only  the  guaran 
tees  that  Congress,  in  its  wisdom,  throws 
around  the  expression  of  the  popular  will." 


i24       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

After  the  people  have  acted  under  these  acts, 
"the  will  of  Congress,  to  concur  with  the  will 
of  the  people,  is  expressed  in  the  act  of  Con 
gress  admitting  the  State,  and  it  is  that  con 
currence"  which  "alone  makes  the  distinction 
between  a  Territory"  and  a  State.  Our  Con 
stitution  knows  no  such  thing  as  an  "incipient 
State."  Davis  found  "no  intermediate  con 
dition  between  a  Territory  and  a  State." 
Whatever  is  covered  by  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States  is  either  a  Territory  or  a  State. 
He  left  the  "dogma  of  sovereignty"  to  the 
"gentlemen  who  meddle  with  metaphysical 
disquisitions."  "The  word  is  not  used  in  our 
laws;  it  is  not  found  among  the  wise  words  of 
our  Constitution.  It  is  the  will  of  the  wisp, 
which  they  who  follow  will  find  a  treacherous 
guide  through  fens  and  bogs."  Nor  would  he 
define  "popular  sovereignty,"  that  "dema 
gogue's  name  for  the  right  of  the  people  to 
govern  themselves — not  that  popular  sover 
eignty  which  is  limited  by  and  springs  from 
an  act  of  Congress — not  that  mushroom 
growth  bred  in  the  hotbed  of  political  cor- 
ruption  as  a  dainty  delicacy  for  the  people's 
palate,  under  the  sedulous  care"  of  the  Demo 
crats — "which,  now  that  it  is  grown,  is  found 
to  be  nothing  but  toadstools,  whereof  the  body 
politic  is  sick;  but  that  right  of  the  people  to 
govern  themselves,  recognized  by  the  funda- 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         125 

mental  law  as  the  very  corner-stone  of  the  Re 
public,  which,  in  this  case,  the  President  vio 
lates  and  denied."  Davis  intended  to  deal  in 
"legal  language,"  in  which  he  found  "such  a 
thing  as  the  people  of  the  United  States,  of 
which  the  people  of  a  Territory  form  the  sub 
jects."  The  Territories  had  no  "legal  right" 
to  initiate  proceedings  to  form  a  constitution." 
The  House  was  not  then  "dealing  with  revo 
lutionary,  but  with  legal  rights.  We  live  and 
are  born  under  the  Constitution,  and  to  us  that 
is  the  ultimate  criterion  of  legal  rights;  it  is 
our  embodiment  of  natural  right,  in  a  living, 
practical  form  of  government;  beyond  it  we 
recognize  no  natural  right  as  a  source  of  legal 
right,  and  he  who  can  not  deduce  his  claim 
of  right  under  it,  has  none."  There  must  be 
no  confusion  of  a  "right  of  law,  under  the 
Constitution,  with  the  natural  right  men 
tioned  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  of 
people  to  alter  and  change  their  government 
to  suit  themselves."  The  people  living  in  a 
territory  must  form  a  State  government  for 
themselves,  within  the  geographical  limits 
laid  out  for  them  by  Congress,  "the  only  legal 
authority,  the  only  source  of  law  for  the  Ter 
ritories."  Congress  throws  around  these  peo 
ple  "a  legal  protection,"  authorizes  them  to 
proceed,  and  gives  them  "the  guarantees  of 
law  in  their  proceedings."  Congress  had 


126       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

passed  no  special  act  authorizing  a  convention 
in  Kansas,  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  did 
not  do  so,  for  it  reserved  to  Congress  power 
to  make  two  or  more  States  out  of  the  Terri 
tory.  He  discussed  the  manner  of  admission 
of  all  the  States:  first,  those  such  as  Vermont 
and  Texas,  which  had  never  been  Territories; 
second,  Territories  such  as  Ohio,  in  which 
Congress  had  given  the  Legislatures  "power  to 
make  laws  in  all  cases;  and  third,  Territories 
such  as  Minnesota,  in  which,  as  in  Kansas, 
Congress  had  extended  the  Legislature's 
power  "to  all  rightful  subjects  of  legislation." 
For  both  the  second  and  third  classes  enabling 
acts  had  been  passed,  specially  authorizing  the 
call  of  a  Constitutional  Convention  and  pro 
viding  for  the  details  of  that  convention. 
Next  he  took  up  "Territories  which  have 
spontaneously  petitioned  for  admission  under 
constitutions  framed  without  an  enabling 
act,"  such  as  Arkansas.  In  all  these  cases 
Congress  declared  the  boundaries  of  the  State 
in  the  act  admitting  it,  and  thus  established 
the  fact  that  there  was  "no  authority  in  her 
constitution  prior  to  her  admission,"  for  "the 
territorial  limits  of  a  State  are  essential  to  her 
existence."  If  the  territorial  convention  has 
no  right  to  define  "the  territory  of  the  State  it 
creates,"  it  cannot  "create  a  State  in  the  eye  of 
the  law  at  all,  for  Congress  may  destroy  its 


CHAPTER  VI— 1857-1859         127 

identity  by  taking  away  a  half,  or  two-thirds, 
or  all  its  territory."  Consequently,  till  "final 
admission  as  a  State,  the  constitution  is  not  a 
law;  it  is  merely  a  proposition."  When  Mich 
igan  was  admitted,  after  framing  a  constitu 
tion  without  an  enabling  act,  Buchanan  said, 
in  the  Senate,  that  the  passing  of  laws  by  the 
Legislature  for  the  calling  of  a  constitutional 
convention  was  an  "act  of  usurpation."  Cal- 
houn  then  held  that  the  movement  "was  revo 
lutionary,  as  it  threw  off  the  authority  of  the 
United  States  over  the  Territory  and  that  we 
are  left  at  liberty  to  treat  like  proceedings  as 
revolutionary  and  to  remand  her  to  her  terri 
torial  condition,  or  to  waive  the  irregulari 
ty."  Buchanan  made  an  initial  blunder  in 
recognizing  the  Lecompton  convention,  which 
he  ought  to  have  ordered  the  military  to  dis 
perse,  as  they  had  been  directed  to  turn  out 
the  convention  held  at  Topeka.  Davis  next 
showed  that  the  law  of  the  Legislature  of 
Kansas  in  regard  to  the  convention  was  not 
executed,  for  no  census  of  the  whole  Terri 
tory  was  taken,  as  directed,  before  the  election 
for  members  of  the  convention;  the  apportion 
ment  was  made  by  the  secretary,  who  was  the 
acting  Governor,  and  not  by  the  Governor 
and  secretary;  and  fourteen  counties  were  not 
represented  in  the  convention.  If,  then,  there 
was  no  legal  election,  those  who  did  not  vote 


i28       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

were  not  "bound  by  it."  "They  were  only 
not  participating  in  a  usurpation.  The  foun 
dation  for  a  presumption  of  the  assent  of  those 
who  stayed  at  home  is  that  the  law  required 
them  to  be  at  the  polls.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
citizen  to  cast  his  vote,  and  if  the  citizen  does 
not  cast  it,  he  is  held  to  authorize  those  who 
do,  but  that  cannot  be,  where  the  proceeding 
has  no  legal  validity."  Less  than  3,000  voters 
here  "modestly  ask  the  powers  of  a  State  gov 
ernment  against  the  votes  of  10,000  and  the 
protest  of  7,000,"  so  that  it  is  seen  that  "an 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  are  op 
posed  to  the  thing  that  is  now  sought  to  be 
forced,  or  foisted  upon  them."  Yet  Buchanan 
stated  that  "the  way  to  pacify  them  is  to  sub 
ject  them,  permanently,  to  the  hateful  domi 
nation  of  the  handful  of  men  from  whose 
hands  they  would  have  wrested  the  govern 
ment  but  for  the  United  States  troops."  His 
"policy  is  high  treason  against  the  right  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves."  Since  the 
"stronger  part  of  the  people"  is  against  the 
Constitution  and  the  President  proposes  to 
"confide  the  power  of  State  government"  to 
the  "weaker  party,"  Davis  asked  whether  the 
United  States  troops  were  "to  guarantee  the 
new  usurpation."  He  held  that  the  passage 
of  this  law  would  be  a  "declaration  of  civil 
war,"  and  that  "free  government  is  a  farce,  if 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         129 

men  are  required  to  submit  to  usurpation  such 
as  has  here  been  perpetrated."  He  feared  that 
"the  people  of  Kansas  are  not  in  a  mood  to  as 
sist  at  the  farce.  They  will  turn  it  into  trag 
edy.  Having  heretofore  resisted,  we  ought 
to  suppose  they  will  resist  again."  Congress 
ought  not  to  drive  them  "upon  revolutionary 
courses,"  but  "give  them  the  opportunity  of 
expressing  their  will  as  to  the  law  under 
which  they  are  to  live." 

Later  in  the  session,20  when  the  Kansas  situ 
ation  was  again  under  discussion,  Davis  fa 
vored  giving  the  people  there  an  opportunity 
to  say  whether  or  not  they  preferred  the  Le- 
compton  Constitution.  He  believed  that  that 
Constitution  had  been  framed  by  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  Territory,  and  while  he 
did  not  object  to  the  Constitution,  he  did  ob 
ject  to  forcing  the  people  to  accept  it.  Davis 
had  strong  State's  rights  ideas  from  having 
studied  at  the  school"  of  Clay  and  Pinkney, 
and  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  had 
heard  "upon  every  Southern  hustings,  since  as 
a  boy  I  attended  debates,  and  since  as  a  man 
I  have  taken  my  humble  share  in  them,"  that 
every  new  State  had  a  right  to  be  admitted  on 
equal  terms  with  every  other  State.  This  is  a 
"fundamental  principle  which  lies  at  the  very 
basis  of  the  Confederacy."  Therefore,  "no 
Southern  gentleman  can  consistently  vote 


130       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

for"  the  pending  bill.  When  John  H.  Rea 
gan,  of  Texas,  remarked  that  Davis  was  in 
consistent,  inasmuch  as  he  had  opposed  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  Davis 
replied  that  "The  Missouri  Compromise  did 
not  admit  any  such  principle  as  that  there 
could  be  any  limitation  upon  the  sovereign 
power  of  a  State,  whether  with  reference  to 
slavery  or  any  other  subject.  It  did  proceed 
upon  the  assumption  that  there  could  be  a  re 
striction  upon  a  Territory  while  it  remained 
a  Territory,  and  no  longer  than  it  remained  a 
Territory."  Pinkney  had  argued  that  an  "in 
fant  State"  could  not  be  tied  up,  and  opposed 
the  compromise,  because  he  did  not  consider 
the  power  rested  in  Congress  to  control  the 
question  of  slavery  during  the  territorial  con 
dition.  Previous  to  the  admission  of  Missouri, 
conditions  of  various  kinds  had  been  put  into 
enabling  acts,  but  never  since  that  time,  as  the 
debate  then  settled  the  question.21  He  object 
ed  to  the  method  of  adoption  of  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution  under  a  law  which  was  ab 
solutely  void,  as  it  surpassed  the  authority  of 
a  territorial  Legislature  to  call  a  convention. 
The  pending  bill  refused  to  allow  the  people 
of  Kansas  "to  gain  admission  to  the  Union, 
unless  they  concede  one  of  the  flowers  of  their 
prerogative."  A  Territory  may  be  admitted 
by  petition  of  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         131 

If,  after  admission,  Kansas  chooses  to  yield 
its  sovereign  prerogative  as  a  matter  of  con 
tract,  she  may  do  so.  When  the  bill  says 
Kansas  shall  not  tax  United  States  lands, 
it  merely  sets  forth  a  declaration  that 
such  are  the  public  rights  of  the  United 
States,  operative  without  the  assent  of  Kan 
sas;  but  the  power  to  tax  lands  in  the  hands 
of  individuals  is  absolute  and  can  not  be  lim 
ited  by  Congress,  more  than  any  other  por 
tion  of  the  taxing  power  of  the  State.22  Davis 
represented  a  Southern  Statewhich  lost  "more 
negroes  a  year  by  the  failure  to  execute  the 
Fugitive  Slave  law  than  all  the  other  States 
put  together — a  border  State,  and  hence,  in 
case  of  serious  difficulty,  more  directly  inter 
ested  than  South  Carolina  herself,  for  she  has 
a  tier  of  patriotic  States  between  her  and  any 
aggressor.  The  State  of  Maryland  is  on  the 
frontier."  Following  Pinkney  and  in  the 
name  of  Maryland,  Davis  solemnly  protested 
against  conceding  the  right  of  State  sover 
eignty,  "so  vital  to  the  maintenance  of  the  in 
terests  of  the  South." 

A  week  later,23  he  opposed  the  admission  of 
Minnesota,  whose  Constitution  admitted  to 
the  suffrage  white  persons  of  foreign  birth, 
who  had  declared  their  intention  to  become 
citizens — because,  under  the  Federal  Consti 
tution,  a  State  had  no  right  to  confer  this  priv- 


132       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

iiege.  The  right  of  suffrage  affected  directly 
all  States,  through  the  election  of  representa 
tives  in  Congress.  Therefore,  foreigners  were 
thus  given  power,  not  merely  to  misgovern 
Minnesota,  but  also  "me  and  my  constituents." 
Calhoun  properly  had  opposed  a  similar  pro 
vision  in  the  Michigan  Constitution.  The 
Federal  Constitution  begins  with  the  phrase, 
"We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,"  not 
the  residents,  which,  would  include  slaves,  but 
the  body  politic,  persons  who  are  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  Davis  cited  Taney's  opin 
ion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  in  support  of  his 
contention,  and  said  that  he  would  vote  against 
any  one  who  should  claim  a  seat  in  the  House 
through  the  votes  of  unnaturalized  foreigners. 

At  the  Baltimore  election  of  1858,  as  Davis 
told  the  House  of  Representatives  six  years 
later,24  the  Democrats  "submitted  to  the  inev 
itable.  Finding  that  organized  military  force 
would  not  crush  us,  they  organized  a  most  in 
famous  association,  called  the  Reform  party, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  He  down  what  they  could 
not  fight  down  in  open  daylight.  Its  leaders 
shrank  from  contact  with  the  rough  crowd  at 
the  polls;  they  wanted  an  election  managed 
like  a  ballroom.  They  went  to  the  polls  and 
stayed  till  about  10  o'clock,  getting  all  the 
votes  they  had,  and  when  they  had  run  dry, 
by  preconcerted  arrangement,  they  withdrew 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         133 

from  the  polls  and  said  they  were  not  allowed 
to  vote,  and  whined  about  freedom  of  elec 


tions." 


Turning  aside  from  political  affairs,  on  No 
vember  1 6,  1858,  Davis  addressed  the  gradu 
ating  class  at  the  commencement  of  the  East 
ern  Female  High  School  of  Baltimore.25  Yet 
even  here  he  devoted  his  chief  attention  to  a 
defense  of  the  religious  freedom  of  the  United 
States,  which  he  sharply  differentiated,  both 
from  that  tolerationwhich  declared  the  "State 
the  patron  of  all  the  sects,  whose  ministers  it 
pays  and  controls  as  a  part  of  the  machinery 
of  government,  and  seeks  the  quiet  of  the 
State  in  the  stagnation  of  opinion  and  the  he 
reditary  descent  of  creeds;"  and  from  the  an 
cient  principle  "which  assumes  the  supremacy 
of  the  spiritual  over  the  civil  power;  asserts 
the  right  of  the  church  to  define  and  the  State 
to  enforce  the  true  faith;  prohibits  free  judg 
ment,  or  punishes  its  errors  as  crimes."  Con 
trary  to  both  of  these  principles  is  "the  Amer 
ican  principle  of  the  freedom  of  thought,  the 
freedom  of  religion,  the  right  of  every  citizen 
to  unchecked  freedom  in  forming  his  religious 
opinions,  and  the  deep  interest  of  the  State  in 
securing  him  not  only  freedom,  but  the  means 
of  enlightened  judgment,  and  the'  greater, 
deeper  and  holier  faith  in  the  sufficiency  of 
every  enlightened  mind  to  read  for  himself  in 


i34       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  Word  of  God  the  will  of  God,  whose 
practice  is  religion."  The  American  people 
are  religious,  and  their  governments  uphold 
religion,  but  oppose  sectarianism.  The  sys 
tem  of  education  supported  by  the  American 
people  is  not  godless,  though  it  is  unsectarian. 
"Everywhere  the  public  schools  attest  their 
efforts  to  make  freedom  of  thought  and  re 
ligion,  not  merely  the  right,  but  the  habit  of 
the  nation.  The  State  throws  open  the  field 
of  knowledge  and  declares  the  right  of  every 
one  freely  to  enter  and  enjoy  the  fruits."  He 
believed  in  reading  the  Bible  in  the  schools, 
without  "sectarian  exposition."  "All  history 
cannot  show  the  mass  of  any  people  ever  edu 
cated  by  any  church,"  and  the  State  must  as 
sume  the  task.  The  home  must  assist  the  State 
in  training  the  young,  and  "cultivated  and  pi 
ous  mothers  preside  over  the  family."  He 
was  glad  to  see  the  class  before  him,  those 
"future  matrons  of  the  Republic,"  who  al 
ready  showed  fitness  for  their  "high  mission 
as  prophets  of  patriotic  inspiration  to  the 
young  men  of  the  land."  He  believed  that 
woman's  place  was  in  the  home,  and  that 
"when,  in  after  years,  the  eye  of  the  world 
shall  wonder  at  the  dazzling  destinies  of  the 
Republic,  culminating  in  splendor  and  tri 
umph,"  they  would  learn  "that  it  is  not  the 
glory  of  industry,  or  arts,  or  arms,  but  the 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         135 

light    which    the    matrons    of  a  nation  shed 
around  its  path." 

In  the  second  session  of  this  Congress,  Davis 
chiefly  took  the  floor  to  debate  military  mat 
ters.28  He  complained  that,  through  "the  in 
decision  of  Congress  and  the  lack  of  nerve 
and  energy  and  independence"  of  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  Secretaries  of  War,  the  head  of 
almost  every  regiment  had  been  allowed  to  be 
come  an  old  man,  incompetent  to  do  his  duty 
ia  the  field.  A  young  man  with  brevet  rank 
had  to  be  allowed  to  discharge  this  duty,  and 
should  receive  the  same  pay.  He  also  moved 
to  strike  out  appropriations  for  commutation 
and  extra  rations  to  officers  at  the  principal 
sta:ions,  holding  that  the  Government  had 
too  many  stations,  consulted  personal  interests 
and  favored  "gentlemen  of  antique  years." 
He  claimed  *  that  the  Secretary  of  War  had 
been  guilty  of  "flagrant  and  persistent  viola 
tions  of  law"  in  the  Quartermaster's  Depart 
ment,  in  expending  money  beyond  the  amounts 
appropriated,  and  that  nothing  would  restrain 
him  but  a  vote  of  censure  or  impeachment.28 
Later  in  the  session,29  he  moved  to  strike  out 
an  appropriation  for  boats  used  in  an  expedi 
tion  to  Paraguay,  which  the  President  had 
"created,"  incurring  an  expense  greatly  in  ex 
cess  of  the  appropriation  given  for  that  war, 
"which  in  an  unguarded  moment  of  enthusi- 


136       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

asm  we  authorized  him  to  wage."  On  the 
other  hand,  he  defended  the  coast  survey,  say 
ing  that  "It  is  not  economy  to  stop  great  na 
tional  works  of  necessity.  It  is  economy  to 
stop  the  leaks  in  the  Commissary  Department, 
or  in  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  or  the 
stealings  in  the  navy  yards,  or  the  wasteful  and 
extravagant  expenditures  under  the  name  of 
miscellaneous;  but  it  is  not  economy  to  stop 
the  clearing  out  of  our  rivers  and  harbors,  or 
the  erection  of  our  fortifications,  or  the  sup 
ply  of  our  armaments;  still  less  is  it  common 
sense  to  darken  our  light-houses,  or  to  arrest 
the  survey  of  the  coast."  These  are  econom 
ical  expenditures  which  pay  more,  in  what 
they  save,  than  the  Government  expends  in 
accomplishing  these  great  objects. 

Davis  was  always  opposed  to  the  increase  of 
slavery.  About  this  time  he  wrote  for  the 
newspapers  a  stirring  article  against  the  re 
opening  of  the  foreign  slave  trade.31  He  felt 
that  it  was  "time  that  the  insidious  advances 
toward  this  nefarious  and  unchristian  traffic, 
which  a  large  and  influential  party"  were 
"making,  should  attract  the  attention  of  Mary 
land,"  lest  the  people  be  taken  unawares.  The 
"grand  and  humane"  colonization  policy  was 
said  to  have  failed;  the  discontinuance  of  the 
joint  English  and  American  fleet  cruising  off 
the  coast  of  Africa  to  capture  slave  vessels  was 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         137 

proposed;  the  "English  experiment  of  eman 
cipation"  in  the  West  Indies  was  alleged  to 
have  been  mistaken;  men  asserted  "the  uni 
versal  unfitness  of  the  negro  for  mere  personal 
civil  freedom  anywhere";  the  unconstitution 
ally  of  the  Federal  statute  against  the  foreign 
slave  trade  was  alleged;  juries  in  the  South 
refused  to  convict  slave  traders  in  the  very 
teeth  of  the  evidence.  "The  question  is  upon 
us:  Is  it  the  great  Democratic  bait  to  catch 
the  South  in  1860,  or  to  concentrate  the  South 
for  an  act  of  rebellion?  The  Democratic 
party  is  now  ready  at  the  South  to  make  the 
issue — repeal  or  rebellion.  What  does  Mary 
land  say?"  With  this  query  he  ended  this 
article,  as  full  of  a  triumphant  irony  as  any 
thing  he  ever  wrote. 

Davis  was  active  throughout  1859  m  en~ 
deavoring  to  bring  about  a  fusion  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  the  North  with  the  Ameri 
can  party  and  with  the  remnant  of  the  South 
ern  Whigs.  In  pursuance  of  this  effort,  he 
addressed  Horace  .Greeley  an  important  letter, 
which  was  published  in  the  New  York  Tri 
bune  during  November,  i859.32  Davis  favored 
the  nomination  of  Judge  Edward  Bates,  of 
Missouri,  for  the  Presidency,  and  endeavored 
to  induce  the  Republican  party  to  select  him 
as  a  candidate  for  whom  both  Southern  Whigs 
and  Northern  Republicans  could  vote.  He 


138       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

vainly  hoped  that  the  nomination  might  be 
made  in  the  old  Whig  fashion,  without  any 
declaration  as  to  legislation  in  reference  to 
slavery  in  the  Territories.  He  addressed  a 
number  of  letters  to  individuals  and  to  jour 
nals  against  the  wisdom  of  the  union  of  the 
forces  opposed  to  the  Democratic  party  on 
such  a  basis,  and  maintained  that  "all  the  Ter 
ritories  are  now,  by  law  and  in  fact,  free,  for 
there  are  slaves  in  none."  In  New  Mexico 
alone  had  any  legislation  attempted  to  estab 
lish  slavery,  and  the  act  there  passed  was  void, 
being  in  conflict  with  the  decree  of  Mexico 
abolishing  slavery."  If  the  Republicans 
should  insist  on  the  enactment  of  a  law  pro 
hibiting  slavery  in  the  Territories  as  "a  cardi 
nal  point  of  policy  in  the  canvass  of  1860," 
they  would  lose  the  substance  for  the  shadow" 
and  would  fail  to  accomplish  anything.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  election  of  a  President, 
"holding  the  views  of  Mr.  Clay"  as  to  slavery, 
"and  in  character  above  the  necessity  of 
pledges  or  platform,  insures  everything  that 
is  necessary  to  satisfy  reasonable  men,  to  ar 
rest  the  slave  propaganda."  To  carry  a  legis 
lative  restriction  of  slavery,  the  Republicans 
must  have  a  clear  majority  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress  and  the  President,  and  hold  this  po 
sition  "long  enough  to  change  the  Supreme 
Court."  The  last  was  essential,  "for,  as  now 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         139 

constituted,  or  as  hereafter  filled  by  any  Dem 
ocrat,  any  law  of  Congress  restricting  slaves 
will  be  declared  void,"  and  thus  any  legisla 
tion  will  be  undone. 

"On  the  other  hand,"  Davis  urged,  "the 
election  of  a  President  in  1860,  of  itself,  si 
lences  and  arrests  the  slave  propaganda,  if  he 
be  elected  by  a  combination  of  the  opposition, 
in  a  manner  so  free  as  to  secure  a  permanent 
union  of  the  Republican  and  American  vot 
ers."  He,  alone,  "is  sufficient,  and  without 
him  everything  else  is  perfectly  worthless." 
He  can  veto  Congressional  legislation,  ap 
point  Territorial  officers,  and  also  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  With  sagacious  fore 
sight,  Davis  saw  that  "between  now  and  the 
end  of  the  next  term  a  majority  of  the  judges 
now  on  the  bench  must,  in  the  course  of  na 
ture,  be  substituted  by  others.  Three  new  ap 
pointments  will  change  the  complexion  of  the 
Court.  There  are  more  than  three  very  old 
men,  whose  places  must  be  filled  by  the  next 
administration  and  that  will  determine  the 
complexion  of  the  Court  for  the  next  genera 
tion."  The  odious  "Dred  Scott  case  is  a  Dem 
ocratic  case,  decided  by  Democratic  judges, 
resting  on  Democratic  party  political  views 
of  the  Constitution  and  laws,  and  inspired  by 
Democratic  prejudices  and  sentiments."  No 
Whig  judge  would  have  concurred  in  it,  for 


140       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Clay  and  the  Whigs  believed  that  slavery 
"existed  only  by  virtue  of  the  positive  law  of 
the  land  on  which  it  was  attempted  to  be  en 
forced.  So  that  if  forbidden  by  Congress,  or 
if  neither  forbidden  nor  sanctioned  by  Con 
gress,  it  did  not  exist;  and  if  Congress  has  no 
power  over  the  subject  at  all,  then  that,  of 
itself,  made  all  the  Territories  necessarily  and 
forever  free,  till  they  both  became  States  and 
adopted  slavery."  In  Davis's  view,  "to  ac 
complish  a  reversal  of  the  Dred  Scott  folly,  no 
pledge  is  needed,  no  platform,  nothing  but  a 
President  holding  Mr.  Clay's  views.  Judges 
appointed  by  such  a  President  will  instantly 
repudiate  that  ridiculous  farrago  of  bad  his 
tory,  worse  law,  and  Democratic  partisan 
ship."  Davis  appreciated  fully  the  great 
power  of  the  President,  as  it  was  to  be  wielded 
by  Lincoln  and  as  it  has  been  again,  in  the 
twentieth  century.  Therefore,  he  wrote  that 
the  President  "is  omnipotent  against  anything 
but  a  two-thirds  vote  of  both  houses,  so  that 
his  administration  may  be  censured,  but  can 
not  be  arrested  by  any  less  number  by  law." 
"The  tendency  was  to  have  a  Congress  in  sym 
pathy  with  the  President,  but  without  such 
agreement"  the  "slave  propaganda  is  forever 
broken  down,"  for,  without  his  consent,  there 
can  be  passed  no  slave  code  for  the  Territories, 
nor  a  repeal  of  the  laws  against  the  slave 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         141 

trade,  nor  can  there  be  a  repetition  of  the 
scenes  of  Kansas.  If  the  conservative  people 
could  unite  and  carry  the  election  of  1860, 
they  ought  to  continue  in  possession  of  the 
Federal  Government  for  a  generation;  but,  if 
they  fail,  "they  may  roll  up  the  map  of  the 
United  States  for  twenty  years.33 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  On  May  9,  1864. 

2.  "Now  a  traitor,"  said  Davis  in  1864.     B.  G.  Harris  asked 
why  Ligon  was  so  called,  and  Davis,  after  an  angry  encounter 
of  words,  said:  "I  respectfully  decline  to  make  any  reply  to  the 
unworthy  member  from  Maryland." 

3.  In  1864  Davis  said  that  J.  C.  Groome,  who  ran  against 
Hicks,  was  now  disloyal,  so  that  the  historical   significance  of 
that    election   was   considerable,    as    Hicks's    Union    sympathies 
were  most  important  in  1861. 

4.  Brooks  later  became  a  secessionist,   and  was  confined  in 
Forts  Lafayette  and  Warren. 

5.  3  Scharf,  Md.  273. 

6.  On  February  12. 

7.  On  June  n. 

8.  On  May  24. 

9.  On  January  22. 

10.  On  June  7. 

11.  On  June  7  he  condemned  any  department  violating  a  law 
by  making  a  contract  for  the  extension  of  the  Capitol  without 
specific  authorization,  but  felt  that  "If  Congress  saw  fit  to  waste 
the  people's  money,  it  was  no  part  of  the  President's  business 
to  make  them  economical." 

12.  Speech  of  December  19. 

13.  On  January   15. 

14.  On  June  3 — vide  position  on  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  on 
May  ii. 


142       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

15.  His  zeal  for  efficiency  in  public  service  was  shown  on 
March  2  by  his  opposition  to  the  attempt  to  replace  on  the  roll 
of  officers  men   declared  unfit  for  positions  by  two  Boards  of 
Inquiry. 

16.  Speech  of  January  20. 

17.  On  December  23. 

18.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  83. 

19.  Davis   here    spoke    of    Calhoun    as    "a    gentleman    from 
whom,  in  many  respects,  it  is  my  misfortune  to  have  differed 
in  political  opinion,  but  who,  in  my  judgment,  was  one  of  the 
ablest  gentlemen  that  ever  graced  the  councils  of  this  country — 
more  conservative,  manly   and   upright  in   his  views   and  con 
victions,   and  conduct,  than   almost  any  man  of  his  party;    al 
ways  ready  to  sacrifice  party  allegiance  on  the  altar  of  truth; 
always  following  the  dictates  of  an  independent  judgment,   as 
well  in  his  votes  as  in  his  reasoning,  and,  for  that  reason,  justly 
the  worshiped  idol  of  the  great  Southern  section  of  this  country." 

20.  On  April  28. 

21.  He   admitted  that  grants  of  land  might  be  made  on  a 
condition. 

22.  The    bill    said    non-resident    proprietors    should    not    be 
taxed  higher  than  resident  ones.     Davis  said  this  discrimination 
is  a  question  of  State  policy,  which  may  prevent  "Irish  absen 
teeism." 

23.  On  May  5. 

24.  On  May  9,  1864. 

25.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  104. 

26.  On  December  n,  1858,  he  opposed  the  impeachment  of 
Judge  Watrous,  of  Texas;  on  February  9,  1859,  he  said  that  the 
precedent  of   the  contested   election  case   of   Vallandigham   vs. 
Campbell,  authorized  the  admission  of  hearsay  evidence  in  the 
Nebraska  contested  election;   on  February  15  he  moved  to  ap 
propriate  an  extra  amount  to  Miami  Indians  not  named  in  the 
treaty  with  the  tribe,  so  that  the  amount  given  to  the  enumer 
ated  Indians  be  not  unjustly  diminished;   on  March  3   he  ob 
jected  to  the  report  of  the  Conference  Committee  on  the  Post- 
office  bill,   said  there  was  no  authority  to  make   a  contract  to 
carry  the  mails  to  the  Pacific  Coast  via  Tehuantepec  without 


CHAPTER  ¥1—1857-1859         143 

revoking  the  contract  made  via  Panama,  and  that  it  was  con 
trary  to  the  privileges  of  the  House  for  the  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  to  say  that  the  President  will 
or  will  not  sign  certain  bills. 

27.  On  February  18. 

28.  On  March  i  he  proposed  not  to  allow  the  reopening  of 
old  accounts,  when  the  claims  of  the  States  were  discussed  in 
the  Army  bill. 

29.  On  March  2. 

30.  On  February  28. 

31.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  115. 

32.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  119. 

33.  Scharf,  Chron.  of  Balto.,   574,   speaks  of  Anthony  Ken 
nedy  and  Davis  as  addressing  a  Know  Nothing  mass-meeting  at 
Baltimore  on  October  27,  1859. 


i44       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    THIRTY-FIFTH     CONGRESS 
AND  THE  STRUGGLE  TO  PRE 
SERVE  THE  UNION. 

After  being  nominated  by  the  American 
party  in  1858  for  re-election  to  Congress, 
Davis  accepted  the  nomination  in  a  speech  at 
the  Maryland  Institute,  in  which  he  said  that 
"Our  policy  is  to  oppose  all  agitation  of 
slavery."  The  Thirty-fifth  Congress,  like  the 
Thirty-third,  opened  with  a  long  and  bitter 
struggle  over  the  election  of  a  Speaker.  Davis 
voted  for  John  A.  Gilmer,  of  North  Carolina, 
a  conservative  man,  throughout  December, 
1859,  and  January,  1860,  but  on  the  last  day 
of  the  latter  month  he  changed  his  vote  to  Pen- 
nington,  of  New  Jersey,  a  conservative  man, 
but  the  Republican  candidate,  an  act  which 
led  to  "considerable  applause  from  the  Re 
publican  benches  and  mingled  applause  and 
hisses  from  the  galleries,"  as  The  Globe  re 
porter  noted.  This  vote,  which  led,  on  the 
next  day,  to  the  election  of  Pennington  over 
McClernand,  the  Democratic  candidate, 
caused  great  indignation  in  many  quarters 
throughout  Maryland.  As  had  been  the  case 
four  years  previously,  Davis's  colleague,  Har- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         145 

ris,  was  more  conservative,  and  continued  vot 
ing  for  Gilmer  to  the  last.  The  Maryland 
Legislature  had  a  Democratic  majority,  and 
on  February  9  the  House  of  Delegates,  by  a 
vote  of  62  to  i,  passed  a  resolution  that  Davis, 
"by  his  vote  for  the  candidate  of  the  Black 
Republicans,  has  misrepresented  the  senti 
ments  of  all  portions  of  this  State,  and  thereby 
forfeited  the  confidence  of  her  people."  This 
resolve,  when  sent  to  the  Senate,  slept  until  the 
end  of  the  session;  but  on  February  28,  after 
Davis's  defense  of  himself  on  the  floor  of  the 
House,  Dr.  Lynch,  of  Baltimore  county,  of 
fered  a  resolve  there,  which  he  asked  be  refer 
red  to  the  Committee  on  the  Colored  Popula 
tion,  that  $500  be  appropriated  to  transport 
Henry  Winter  Davis  to  Liberia,  as  he  has,  in 
"his  late  speech,  most  violently  assailed  the 
people  of  this  State,  through  us  their  repre 
sentatives,  because  of  our  loyalty  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  South."  McKaig  said  that  if 
the  person  named  were  a  worthy  colored  man, 
he  would  vote  for  the  appropriation,  but  he 
knew  no  white  man  by  that  name  worthy  of 
the  notice  of  the  Senate  of  Maryland.  The 
Senator  from  Frederick  said  he  refused,  as  a 
matter  of  privilege,  to  vote  on  any  measure 
applauding  or  censuring  Congressmen,  as  they 
are  responsible  to  their  constituents. 

The  Senate  felt  that    Lynch's    proposition 
10 


146       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

was  so  unbecoming  that,  finally,  the  proposer 
himself  secured  unanimous  consent  to  strike  it 
from  the  journal. 

On  February  21,  1860,  when  the  House  was 
in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  Davis  seized  the 
opportunity  to  set  forth  his  opinions  of  the 
resolutions  and  of  "their  contrivers  and  sup 
porters"  2  in  a  superb  oration.  With  scornful 
sarcasm,  he  began:  "Mr.  Chairman,  the  hon 
orable  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  has  deco 
rated  me  with  its  censure.  It  is  my  purpose  to 
acknowledge  that  compliment."  He  taunted 
the  Democratic  majority  of  the  Legislature  as 
being  like  Christopher  Sly  in  "being  out  of 
place  in  her  legislative  halls";  as  "greatly  de 
ficient  in  sound,  practical  common  sense,"  but 
as  abounding  in  the  "genius  of  ignorance," 
and  as  needing  lawyers  to  attend  their  caucus 
to  perfect  the  laws.  "Not  elevated  to  the  full 
sense  of  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  their 
high  place  by  the  great  memories  which  sur 
round  them  in  the  State  House,  where  daily 
they  meet,  where  once  the  great  Congress  of 
the  Revolution  sat  and  where  George  Wash 
ington  surrendered  his  sword  that  the  law 
might  thenceforth  reign — the  caucus  is  the 
Legislature,  the  Legislature  the  recording 
clerk  for  the  dictates  of  the  caucus;  debate  is 
silenced  and  consideration  is  banished." 
Keeping  the  offensive,  he  pilloried  the  enact- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         147 

ments  of  the  Legislature.  "In  the  midst  of 
the  excitement  in  the  country  upon  the  Negro 
Question,"  men  were  found  in  the  Legisla 
ture  "anxious  to  follow  the  deplorable  ex 
ample,  shocking  to  the  sensibilities  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  Maryland,  of  re 
ducing  into  slavery  the  men  that  our  fathers 
freed."  **  "Nothing  but  the  unanimous  shriek 
of  indignation  which  rang  from  one  end  of 
Maryland  to  the  other  averted  the  danger  of 
the  passage  of  some  such  despotic  and  oppres 
sive  measure  and  one,  seriously  and  rashly, 
unsettling  the  industrial  interests  of  Mary 
land."  The  Legislature  had  taken  the  control 
of  the  police  force  of  Baltimore  City  from  the 
municipal  authorities,  and  Davis  ardently  at 
tacked  this  "flagrant  usurpation."  As  they 
boasted  themselves  the  "sole  guardians  in 
Maryland"  of  "Southern  rights,"  they  had  put 
"cap  and  bells"  on  the  bill  by  incorporating 
therein  a  proviso  that  "no  Black  Republican, 
or  indorser  or  supporter  of  the  Helper  book, 
shall  be  appointed  to  any  office"  by  the  Police 
Board. 

On  this  provision  Davis  emptied  the  vials 
of  his  wrath;  while  he  held  up  to  equal  exe 
cration  and  to  ridicule  a  similar  provision 
found  in  the  recent  charter  of  the  Baltimore 
Street  Railway  Company,  prohibiting  any 
"Black  Republican  or  indorser  or  approver 


148       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

of  the  Helper  book"  from  receiving  any  of  the 
benefits  of  or  privileges  of  this  act."  Then  he 
turned  to  the  examination  of  the  resolution  of 
censure.  Prior  to  the  election  of  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  a  resolution 
had  passed  the  House  of  Delegates  "which 
was  intended  to  condemn  beforehand  any  vote 
which  should  not  be"  for  a  Democrat,  but 
Davis  truly  asserted  "that  all  they  could  do 
wrould  not  make  me  waver  one  hair's  breadth 
from  wrhat  they  knew  was  my  firm  resolve." 
His  vote  for  Pennington  had  "recalled  to 
them  that  they  were  committed  to  follow"  the 
former  resolution  with  "explicit  condemna 
tion."  He  read  the  first  sentence,  containing 
the  charge  that  he  had  "misrepresented  the 
sentiments  of  all  parts  of  this  State,  and  there 
by  forfeited  the  confidence  of  her  people." 
Then,  with  superb  scorn,  he  said:  "I  respect 
fully  tell  the  gentlemen  who  voted  for  that 
resolution  to  take  back  their  message  to  their 
masters  and  say  that  I  speak  to  their  masters 
face  to  face  and  not  through  them."  The 
Democrat's  "whole  policy  is  to  poison  the 
minds  of  our  people  against  every  man  not  a 
Democrat  in  the  free  States;  to  inspire  them 
with  distrust,  apprehension  and  terror;  to 
teach  them  to  look  on  the  accession  to  power 
of  any  one  called  by  the  name  of  Republican 
as  not  merely  a  change  of  power  from  one  to 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        149 

another  political  party,  differing  in  principle 
and  policy,  but  equally  loyal  to  the  United 
States,  but  as  not  far  removed  from  such  op 
pression  and  danger  as  to  furnish  just  cause 
of  seeking  revolutionary  remedies.  Their 
hope  seems  to  be  to  retain  power  by  the  fears 
of  one-half  the  people  for  the  existence  of 
slavery,  and  of  the  other  half  for  the  existence 
of  the  Union.  Agitation,  clamor,  vitupera 
tion,  audacious  and  pertinaceous,  are  the 
weapons  of  their  warfare."  This  spirit,  like 
that  of  Milton's  "Portress  of  Hellgate,"  stands 
"ready  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  their  hold 
of  power,  to  let  loose  on  this  blessed  land  the 
Satan  of  demoniacal  passion." 

Davis  felt  that  these  resolutions  would  have 
little  effect  on  his  "constituency  which  had 
stood  by  me,  through  good  report  and  through 
evil  report,"  and  that  his  act  was  "not  only 
approved,  but  honored  and  applauded  by 
every  man  whose  opinion  I  regard."  As  to 
that  vote,  "I,  sir,  have  no  apology  to  make.  I 
have  no  excuses  to  render.  What  I  did,  I  did 
on  my  own  judgment,  and  did  not  look  across 
my  shoulder  to  see  what  my  constituentswould 
think.  I  told  my  constituents  that  I  would 
come  here  a  free  man  or  not  at  all,  and  they 
sent  me  here  on  that  condition.  I  told  them 
that  if  they  wanted  a  slave  to  represent  them, 
they  could  get  plenty,  but  I  was  not  one.  I 


150       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

told  them  that  I  had  already  passed  through 
more  than  one  difficult,  complex,  dangerous 
session  of  Congress;  that  I  had  been  obliged 
again  and  again  to  do  that  which  is  least  grate 
ful  to  my  feelings;  to  stand  not  merely  op 
posed  to  my  honorable  political  opponents, 
but  to  stand  alone  among  my  political  friends, 
without  the  strength  and  support  of  which  a 
public  man  receives  from  being  buoyed  up 
breast  high  by  men  of  like  sentiments,  elected 
on  like  principles,  and  who,  if  there  by  error, 
would  stand  as  a  shield  and  bulwark  between 
him  and  his  responsibility.  I  foresaw,  then,  ex 
actly  as  it  resulted,  that  the  time  would  come 
when  I  would  be  obliged  again  to  take  that 
stand;  and  I  wanted  my  people  to  know  it,  so 
that  if  they  chose  to  have  another  one,  who 
would  go  contrary  to  his  judgment  and  bend 
like  a  willow  when  the  storm  came,  they 
might  pick  him  out  and  choose  the  material 
for  their  work." 

"Mr.  Chairman,  they  sent  me  here,  and  I 
have  done  what  I  know  was  my  duty."  He 
then  recited  Mr.  Pennington's  record  as  a 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  and  as  a  Whig  in  the 
day  of  Whig  greatness,  "as  a  man  who  had  de 
clined  official  position  offered  him  by  Taylor 
and  Fillmore,  who  was  in  "favor  of  the  en 
forcement  of  every  law  that  any  Southern 
State  has  an  interest  in,"  and  who  was  sound 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        151 

on  the  protection  of  American  industry  and 
on  river  and  harbor  improvements.  Penning- 
ton  was  a  man  of  "moderate  views,  in  favor  of 
silence  on  the  slavery  question,  of  putting  an 
end  to  the  internecine  strife  of  sections  that 
has  raged  for  years,  and  therefore,  of  all  men, 
the  man  to  sit  in  that  chair."  Davis  had  ex 
pected  "clamor  over  that  vote,"  but  was  sur 
prised  that  the  Know  Nothings  in  the  Legis 
lature,  "my  own  friends,  excepting  four  of 
them,"  voted  for  the  resolution.  In  an  amus 
ing  manner,  he  described  how  they  allowed 
themselves  to  be  frightened,  and  cried  out,  "I 
admire  the  audacity  of  the  Maryland  Demo 
crat  as  much  as  I  deplore  the  weakness  of  the 
Maryland  American." 

Davis  intended  to  "meet  with  all  equanim 
ity"  the  "obloquy  attached  to  the  course  that  I 
have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  pursue,"  and  re 
membered  how  Clay's  vote  for  John  Quincy 
Adams  as  President  "brought  accusation 
against  him."  "I  have  sat  at  his  feet,"  con 
tinued  Davis,  "and  learned  my  political  prin 
ciples  from  him.  I  can  tread  his  path  of  po 
litical  martyrdom.  Before  any  cry  of  Legis 
latures  or  people  I  will  not  yield,  they  may 
pass  over  my  prostrate  body  or  my  ruined 
reputation,  but  step  aside  I  will  not  to  avoid 
either  fate."  He  was  "aware  that  we  all  this 
day  regard  the  negro  question  as  that  which  is 


152       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

decisive,  important  and  controlling."  "There 
have  been  others  at  other  times,  equally  im 
portant,  equally  exciting,  equally  controll 
ing."  But  whatever  be  the  question,  Davis 
meant  always  "to  assert  my  independence, 
awed  by  no  authority  into  acts  which  I  disap 
prove. 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Mente  quatit  solida — neque  auster. 

"No  sir,  not  even  the  south  wind.  Whether 
it  relate  to  a  matter  of  financial  policy,  or  to 
a  matter  of  sectional  strife,  no  man  is  fit  for 
this  place  who  is  not  willing  to  take  his  politi 
cal  life  in  his  hand  and,  without  looking  back, 
go  forward  on  the  line  of  wrhat  he  regards  as 
right,  and,  sir,  whether  it  relates  to  the  ma 
terial  interests  of  my  constituents  or  to  those 
great  political  interests  which  are  supposed  to 
be  bound  up  with  the  existence  of  slavery  in 
the  slave  States,  I  trust  I  shall  never  allow 
myself,  by  any  clamor  or  by  any  storm,  how 
ever  loud  or  however  fierce,  for  an  instant  to 
be  made  to  veer  from  that  course  which  strikes 
me  to  be  right.  I  am  not  here  merely  as  a 
member  from  the  Fourth  Congressional  Dis 
trict  of  Maryland.  I  am  not  here  merely  to 
represent  the  residue  of  the  State  of  Mary 
land.  I  am  not  entitled  to  consult  their  preju 
dices  as  only  worthy  of  regard.  I  am  bound 
to  look  to  a  wider  constituency,  to  a  higher 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        153 

duty.  If  my  duty  to  that  wider  constituency 
can  be  made  to  promote  the  interests  of  my 
local  constituency,  then  my  duty  to  the  two 
coincides.  But,  sir,  in  the  great  necessities  of 
public  life,  there  have  been  heretofore,  and 
there  may  be  again,  occasions  on  which  I  may 
be  called  upon,  as  other  public  men  have  here 
tofore  been,  to  make  the  painful  decision  that 
the  interest  of  the  nation  requires  that  I  shall 
disregard  the  opinions,  unanimous,  firm,  re 
peatedly  expressed,  of  my  constituency." 

The  spirit  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the 
resolution  of  the  House  of  Delegates  appeared 
tc  Davis  of  "sinister  import."  He  recited  the 
"extraordinary  circumstances  under  which  the 
election  of  Speaker  took  place."  The  "Demo 
cratic  portion  of  the  House,  day  after  day, 
branded  the  representatives  of  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  people  of  the  free  States  as  trai 
tors  to  the  country,  instigators  of  assassination, 
bent  upon  breaking  up  and  destroying  slavery 
in  the  States,  carrying  into  the  midst  of  our 
families  the  torch  and  the  knife  of  the  assas 
sin  and  incendiary."  Southern  States  adopted 
revolutionary  resolutions,  and,  for  the  first 
time,  a  State  forgot  the  Constitutional  prohi 
bition  of  entering  into  compacts  with  another 
and  sent  a  messenger  to  Virginia,  appealing 
to  her,  by  reason  of  the  John  Brown  raid,  "to 
send  delegates  by  law  to  a  Convention  of 


154       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

States,  which,  if  it  did  anything,  must  assume 
the  form  and  functions  of  that  great  revolu 
tionary  Congress  which  took  the  earlier  steps 
to  break  the  bonds  that  bound  our  fathers  to 
the  throne  of  Great  Britain."  Davis  stood 
there,  "sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of 
these  United  States — not  of  any  other  confed 
eracy  which  a  future  sun  may  rise  upon,"  and 
did  right  in  voting  to  elect  as  Speaker  a  man 
who  was  a  "symbol  of  peace."  If  secession 
should  come,  Davis  would  have  neglected  his 
duty  had  he  not  helped  to  organize  a  House 
of  Representatives  competent  to  sanction 
measures  which  might  be  necessary;  or  better, 
to  "avert  the  very  possibility  of  collisions  so 
disastrous,"  by  the  election  of  one  under  whose 
auspices  "at  least  there  is  an  hour  before 
strife,  when  men  may  pause  and  become  cool." 
The  House  of  Delegates  had  really  said  that 
"anarchy  had  better  reign  than  that  any  one 
called  by  the  name  of  Republican  should  be 
elected  Speaker."  Than  his  vote  for  Penning- 
ton,  there  was  no  act  of  Davis's  life  he  regret 
ted  less,  "none  more  defensible  on  high  and 
statesmanlike  reasons,  none  where  the  event 
has  more  promptly  indicated  its  wisdom."  He 
believed  that  the  calmer  judgment  of  the 
Democrats  would  "soften  the  sweeping  judg 
ment  which  impeached  a  whole  political  par 
ty  of  conspiracy  to  promote  servile  insurrec- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        155 

tion."  "John  Brown's  crime"  was  "no  inva 
sion  of  Virginia  at  all,  still  less  an  invasion  of 
Virginia  by  or  from  a  free  State.  It  was  a 
conspiracy  to  free  negroes,  arrested  in  the  at 
tempt,  defended  with  arms,  stained  with  mur 
ders  and  punished  with  death."  Not  a  slave 
joined  Brown  voluntarily,  and,  though  the 
crime  was  "atrocious,"  it  revealed  a  state  of 
feeling  "on  which  our  eyes  ought  to  rest  with 
satisfaction,"  for  it  "negatives  the  existence  of 
any  conspiracy  against  our  peace  in  the  free 
States  of  the  Confederacy.  Neither  the  plan, 
nor  the  execution,  revealed  any  higher  intelli 
gence  or  greater  power  behind  the  crazy  en 
thusiasts  who  acted  in  the  tragedy."  With 
sharp  insight,  Davis  urged  the  Southerners  to 
permit  the  "keenness"  with  which  they  felt 
"this  crime  against  the  peace  of  a  slave  State" 
to  "enable  them  to  appreciate  how  the  more 
aggravated  events  in  Kansas  influenced  the 
minds  of  men  in  the  free  States,  and  fired  the 
fanaticism  of  Brown  to  the  point  of  bloody 
revenge."  Davis  believed  that  the  sympathy 
with  Brown  was  of  "no  political  significance 
in  the  populous  North,"  that  his  "bloody  type 
of  fanaticism"  was  "most  rare  among  the  abo 
litionists,"  which  body  of  enthusiasts  "had 
never  numbered  ten  members  of  the  House.'  " 
Sympathy  with  any  convicted  criminal  was 
too  common  to  excite  surprise.  Davis  ac- 


156       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

cepted  with  full  faith  Sherman's  statement, 
reiterated  by  Corwin,  that  the  Republicans 
had  no  "intention  of  invading  the  rights  or 
quiet  of  any  slaveholding  State;  that  there  is 
no  design  or  desire  to  tamper  with,  or  trouble, 
slavery  where  it  exists;  that  they  are  willing 
to  let  the  subject  alone,  if  others  are  willing  to 
let  things  stand  as  they  are."  He  wished  to 
leave  unanswered  any  "vague  dissertation  on 
impractical  theories,  such  as  the  possibility  of 
property  in  man,  or  whether  slavery  be  hate 
ful  to  God,"  and  he  pointed  out  that,  from 
1855  there  had  been  proposed  by  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  free  States  no  bill  that  was 
not  "defensive  in  its  character;  not  one  that 
has  looked  beyond  retaining  the  Territories 
free  which  were  already  free."  His  conclu 
sion  was  that:  "We  have,  then,  peace  before 
us,  if  we  will  only  accept  it.  The  free  States 
ask  no  new  law." 

On  June  2  James  A.Stewart,  another  Mary 
land  Congressman,  attacked  Davis  for  that 
vote  for  Speaker  which  caused  the  election  of 
a  Black  Republican  and  made  the  South  lose 
the  chairmanship  of  almost  all  committees. 
In  Stewart's  Eastern  Shore  district  the  people 
of  all  parties  "utterly  condemn  and  repudiate 
Davis's  course.  Davis  inquired  why  the  Sen 
ate  of  Maryland  did  not  pass  the  resolution  of 
condemnation,  and  Stewart  could  make  only 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        157 

a  lame  reply.3  Stewart  continued  with  the 
assertion  that  if  Davis  would  go  before  the 
voters  of  Baltimore  and  stand  by  the  doc 
trines  of  the  Republican  party,  he  would  not 
receive  more  votes  than  Fremont;  for  "the 
people  of  Maryland  are  loyal  to  the  Union 
and  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the  South," 
and  "they  look  upon  the  Republican  party  as 
hostile  to  the  perpetuity  of  this  Government 
and  at  war  with  the  people  of  the  country." 
Stewart  did  not  know  whether  Davis  sub 
scribed  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Republican 
party  and  wished  to  know  where  to  locate  him, 
but  Davis  deigned  to  make  him  no  reply. 

Elaine  wrote  of  this  brilliant  defence  that, 
for  "eloquence  of  expression,  force  and  con- 
clusiveness  of  reasoning,  it  is  entitled  to  rank 
in  the  political  classics  of  America  as  Burke's 
address  to  the  electors  of  Bristol  does  among 
those  of  England."  It  was  Davis's  chief  ap 
pearance  on  the  floor  of  the  House  at  this  ses 
sion. 

He  opposed  assessing  a  duty  on  wool 
upon  the  American,  instead  of  upon  the  for 
eign  valuation,  because  the  same  principle  was 
not  elsewhere  carried  out  in  the  law  and  be 
cause  it  was  difficult  to  fix  upon  a  reasonable 
average  as  to  cleanliness,  or  to  cleanse  wool  in 
the  custom  house.5  He  urged  an  appropria 
tion  of  $10,000  for  repairs  needed  at  the  Bal- 


158       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

timore  Custom  House  6  on  account  of  fire,  and 
that  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  be  per 
mitted  to  extend  its  tracks  through  certain 
streets  in  Washington  and  to  build  a  bridge 
over  the  Potomac  River.7  He  refused  to  sup 
port  the  Pacific  Railroad  bill,  though  it  pro 
posed  an  object  which  lay  very  near  his  heart,8 
because  the  charter  was  given  to  a  voluntary 
association,  without  a  grant  of  eminent  do 
main.  The  "work  can  be  accomplished  only 
by  a  corporation,  or  by  direct  action  of  the 
Government,  wrhich  method  I  prefer."  He 
hesitated  to  "create  a  corporation,  holding 
such  stupendous  power,"  and  proposed  that 
the  work  be  subdivided  among  corporations, 
each  of  which  should  be  coextensive  with  a 
State,  and  thus  the  influence  of  a  non-resident 
corporation  would  be  prevented. 

Believing  that  sailing  vessels  were  of  no 
value,9  he  advocated  fitting  up  as  many  as  pos 
sible  of  those  contained  in  the  navy  with  auxil 
iary  steam  power.  He  opposed  meddling  with 
the  arrangement  of  studies  at  West  Point/0 
and  moved  to  strike  out  an  appropriation  for 
barracks  at  Camp  Cooper  and  at  Fort  Mon 
roe,  where  he  had  been  recently,  since  the 
means  of  the  Government  were  so  scanty.  He 
also  opposed,  on  behalf  of  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee,  an  appropriation  for  the 
payment  of  volunteers  called  into  service  in 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         159 

Kansas  in  1856,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
post  in  the  Red  River  Valley,  for  which  there 
had  been  no  recommendation  from  the  War 
Department.  "The  fact  that  Indians  in  that 
locality  kill  and  scalp  each  other  is  no  valid 
reason  why  the  Government  should  appropri 
ate  money  to  build  a  fort  for  the  protection  of 
the  whites."  On  the  other  hand,  he  favored 
an  appropriation  for  the  purchase  of  ord 
nance,  since  the  result  of  "any  military  opera 
tion  hereafter  is,  in  great  measure,  dependent 
on  being  able  to  compete  with  any  nation  of 
the  world  in  the  improved  arms  of  modern 
warfare."  n 

At  the  Chicago  convention  of  the  Republi 
can  party  in  1860  eight  votes  were  cast  for 
Davis  as  Vice-President  on  the  first  ballot,12 
and  we  cannot  but  regret  that  such  a  sound 
anti-slavery  man  and  a  Border  State  Unionist 
was  not  named  to  make  the  campaign  with 
Lincoln  and  to  lessen  the  force  of  the  charge 
that  the  Republican  was  a  sectional  party.13 
When  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  moved  not  to 
receive  the  delegates  from  Maryland  to  the 
convention,  Cleveland,  of  Connecticut,  made 
the  convincing  reply  that  "but  for  Davis,  of 
Maryland,  our  hopes  of  victory  in  the  strug 
gle  to  organize  the  House  of  Representatives 
would  have  been  dashed  to  pieces,  yet  we 
haggled  over  giving  Maryland  a  vote." 


160       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

During  the  Presidential  campaign  Davis 
made  an  important  speech  to  the  voters  of  the 
Fourth  Congressional  District.15  He  began 
with  expressing  his  joy  "over  the  dissolution 
of  the  Democratic  party,"  which  had  pro 
claimed  that,  upon  its  integrity,  "depended 
the  integrity  of  the  Union."  Davis  asserted 
that  the  Democratic  party  had  pushed  the 
country  near  "the  brink  of  the  precipice  of 
disunion,"  and  then,  after  reciting  the  record 
of  Maryland  in  voting  for  Scott  and  for  Fill- 
more,  Presidential  candidates  opposed  to  the 
Democrats,  urged  his  auditors  to  vote  for  Bell 
and  Everett.  "The  most  important  of  all 
things"  was  a  "change  in  the  government,  with 
which  the  Democratic  party  was  not  fit  to  be 
entrusted."  The  firing  on  the  election  mob  in 
Washington,  the  subjecting  of  the  people  of 
Kansas  to  military  rule,  the  "weak  wielding" 
of  power  against  the  Mormons  in  Utah,  the 
expedition  to  Paraguay,  the  illegal  firing  on 
neutral  vessels  near  Vera  Cruz,  the  attempt  of 
Democrats  in  Congress  to  have  the  President 
seize  the  States  of  Chihuahua  and  Sonora,  all 
these  things  show  that  that  party  has  forgot 
ten  "all  the  limitations  upon  the  executive 
power,  and  they  are  grasping  at  the  right  to 
wield  the  sword  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Presi 
dent."  Furthermore,  the  swelling  of  the  ex 
penses  of  the  Government,  in  a  time  of  com- 


CHAPTER  ¥11—1859-1861         161 

mercial  panic,  proved  their  incapacity,  as  did 
the  incurring  of  a  public  debt  in  a  time  of 
profound  peace,  the  corruption  of  the  civil 
service,  the  "reckless  use  of  public  money  in 
the  elections,"  the  veto  of  Merrill's  Agricul 
tural  College  bill,  and  the  "failure  to  remodel 
the  tariff  so  as  to  protect  all  the  varied  inter 
ests  of  American  industry."  Davis  believed 
that  the  Democrats  should  be  ousted  from 
power,  so  that  the  administration  might  "give 
us  the  laws  which  are  essential  to  the  pros 
perity  of  the  industry  of  the  country,"  build 
the  Pacific  railroad,  "reinstate  the  system  of 
improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,"  reorga 
nize  the  navy,  and  place  the  army  upon  a 
proper  footing.  These  reforms  will  never  be 
accomplished  by  the  Democratic  party;  for, 
so  long  as  it  "shall  remain  in  power,  so  long 
there  will  be  nothing  but  one  eternal  howl  on 
the  negro  question  to  keep  themselves  in." 

Through  his  arduous  public  duties  Davis 
had  been  unable  to  attend  a  public  meeting  be 
fore  this  one,  but  he  had  kept  his  eye  upon  the 
current  of  public  affairs.  With  absolute  truth, 
he  told  his  audience  that  he  was  not  "fright 
ened  by  popular  clamor,"  nor  "eaten  up  by 
any  personal  ambition  that  would  lead  me  to 
hide,  in  any  particular,  any  opinion  of  mine." 
He  referred  to  his  vote  for  Pennington,  which 
he  would  repeat,  if  it  were  necessary.  He 
11 


162       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

could  not  be  induced,  by  "any  amount  of  in 
timidation  or  threat  or  insinuation,"  to  "make 
any  combination  with  a  Democrat."  "I  will 
do  everything  that  is  honorable  to  elect  John 
Bell."  The  Democratic  party  had  "two  wings, 
but  no  body,"  and  the  opposition, "representing 
the  great  body  of  the  once  powerful  and  dom 
inant  Whig  party,"  was  also  divided  from  top 
to  bottom.  This  was  a  great  misfortune,  for 
neither  Lincoln  nor  Bell,  if  chosen  President, 
could  carry  on  the  Government  without  the 
united  support  of  these  members  of  Congress 
who  opposed  the  Democrats.  The  "oblitera 
tion  of  the  lines  of  demarcation"  between  fol 
lowers  of  Bell  and  of  Lincoln  must  be  striven 
for.  Davis  was  "for  that  party  really  of  the 
Union  and  of  the  Constitution — a  party  united 
and  powerful  over  the  whole  Republic,  de 
voted  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  country — 
which  will  inflict  wrong  or  insult  on  the  sen 
timents,  the  feelings,  the  rights,  the  interests 
of  none."  He  warned  men  not  "to  excite  pas 
sions  or  fears  wantonly,  for  it  is  difficult  to 
calm  excited  passions  or  fears."  Davis  yield 
ed  to  "none  in  devotion  to  the  interests"  of 
Bell,  but  in  eloquent  phrases  declared  that  he 
would  never  allow  himself  to  "join  in  a 
clamor"  against  the  Republicans,  "which  I 
know  to  be  baseless,  which  I  believe  to  be  in  a 
great  measure  dishonest,  and  which  I  am  con- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        163 

vinced  is  dangerous  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
country."  The  North  was  not  "filled  with 
John  Browns,"  the  Republicans  were  not 
"traitors  to  the  Constitution,  hostile  to  your 
interests,  bent  on  servile  insurrection,  endeav 
oring  to  invade  your  State  institutions  and 
make  your  families  insecure  and  your  lives  a 
torment."  Those  who  spread  these  ideas  "are 
playing  into  the  hands  of  that  element  of  dis 
union  which  exists  at  the  South,"  and  which 
desired,  in  the  event  of  Lincoln's  election,  "to 
precipitate  them  into  a  revolution."  In  vot 
ing  for  candidates  for  office,  "We  must  guide 
ourselves  according  to  the  policy  we  know 
they  are  going  to  pursue,  and  allow  their  ab 
stract  opinions  to  remain  abstract  opinions, 
unless  they  are  called  into  active  practice  and 
are  matters  directly  in  issue.  I  say  that,  at 
this  moment,  according  to  the  avowal  of  every 
party  not  Democratic — mark  the  limitation- 
according  to  the  avowal  of  every  party  except 
ing  the  two  wings  of  the  Democratic  party, 
the  slavery  question  is  absolutely  settled,  if 
the  Democracy  will  let  it  alone."  Lincoln  had 
even  stated  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  should 
be  executed.  Davis  believed  that  "the  way  to 
settle  the  slavery  question  is  to  be  silent  on  it," 
and  that  there  was  "no  ground  for  fear,  in  the 
event  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  succeeding."  Mr. 
Breckenridge,  the  "seceding  candidate  of  the 


1 64       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Democratic  party,"  holds  opinions  "the  most 
extreme,  untenable  and  dangerous  of  all,"  for 
"he  maintains  that  the  Constitution  of  itself 
carries  slavery  into  the  Territories;  that,  un 
der  it,  any  individual  has  a  right  to  carry  his 
slave  there  without  any  law;  and  that  laws 
must  be  passed  by  Congress,  as  they  may  be 
come  needful,  forthe  purpose  of  protecting  it." 
The  election  of  Mr.  Breckenridge  will,  there 
fore,  result  in  a  "perpetual  struggle  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  by  persons  who 
desire  to  carry  negroes  into  the  Territories, 
and  do  not  wish  to  do  so  until  they  are  pro 
tected  by  law,  to  secure  the  passage  of  laws  by 
Congress  to  protect  them  there.  There  is  not 
the  remotest  probability  that  such  a  law  can 
ever  be  passed  through  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress.  It  is,  therefore,  an  element  of  perpetual 
discord,  perpetually  tending  to  widen  still 
farther  apart  the  two  portions  of  the  Union." 
Douglas,  in  the  second  place,  had  shown 
"that  the  Constitution  does  not  carry  slavery 
into  the  Territory,"  that  the  "inhabitants  of  a 
Territory  have  themselves  the  absolute  right 
to  introduce  and  allow  slavery,  if  they  see  fit" 
He  had  the  better  of  Breckenridge,  "as  a  ques 
tion  of  political  history."  The  "extreme 
Southern  portion  of  his  party  would  not  lend 
themselves  to  him;  they  thought  they  had  been 
dealing  with  a  tool,  and  they  found  they  had 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         165 

been  dealing  with  a  master."  Douglas  had 
done  another  good  thing  in  agreeing  with 
Reverdy  Johnson,  who  argued  the  Dred  Scott 
case,16  in  saying  that  the  Supreme  Court  never 
passed  upon  Breckenridge's  doctrine,  which 
had  been  "adopted  by  the  great  body  of  the 
Democratic  party  at  the  South."  That  party 
had  "lived  upon  its  boasted  orthodoxy  for  the 
last  twenty  years,"  and  now  Douglas  had 
given  "again  freedom  of  opinion,"  so  that 
"men  can  speak  above  their  breath;  men  can 
read  history,  and  repeat  it,  without  the  fear  of 
being  tarred  and  feathered  in  any  neighbor 
hood  in  the  South."  For  this  service  "future 
generations  will  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude." 

Turning  to  Bell,  Davis  admitted  that,  "as  a 
matter  of  abstract  opinion,"  he  agreed  with 
Breckenridge;  but,  nominated  by  the  Consti 
tutional  Union  party,  he  stood  upon  a  plat 
form  "in  favor  of  things  remaining  as  they 
are,"  and  "of  silence  on  the  negro  question." 
Everett  held  opposite  opinions,  but  the  "ques 
tion  is  never  what  he  may  think  as  a  question 
of  law,  but  what  he  will  do  as  an  administra 
tor  of  the  law."  He  had  formerly  expressed 
anti-slavery  opinions,  but  now  had  accepted 
a  nomination  of  a  party  pledging  its  nominees 
"to  silence,  to  quiet,  to  leaving  things  as  they 
are,  to  the  faithful  and  honest  execution  of 
every  law." 


1 66       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Lastly,  he  turned  to  "meet  the  question  right 
in  the  eye,"  "what  are  the  opinions  of  Mr. 
Lincoln?"  Many  persons  said  that,  if  he  were 
elected,  they  would  dissolve  the  Union. 
Davis  did  not  believe  that  they  would  do  this, 
but  examined  "the  ground  upon  which  they 
might  act  and  found  no  question  open,  except 
the  question  of  the  Territories,  which  were  all 
absolutely  free  in  point  of  fact."  They  were 
in  the  exact  condition  that  they  were,  when 
"Clay  introduced  his  great  Compromise  bill 
of  1850,"  with  reference  to  territory  acquired 
from  Mexico.  The  "great  wisdom  of  that 
compromise  was  that  it  stated  that,  as  slavery 
did  not  exist  nor  was  likely  to  be  introduced 
therein,  it  was  not  expedient  for  Congress  to 
provide  by  law  for  the  introduction  or  exclu 
sion  of  the  institution."  With  masterly  skill 
Davis  continued,  linking  Lincoln's  name  to 
that  of  the  revered  Whig  leader  and  claiming 
that  both  men  thought  the  same  with  refer 
ence  "to  the  territory — that  it  is  free.  It  is, 
therefore,  needless  to  pass  any  law  upon  the 
subject."  Quotations  from  Clay's  speeches 
proved  that  he  considered  slavery  an  evil 
which  "ought  not  to  be  extended  voluntarily." 
Lincoln  also  had  "no  legislation  to  ask,  unless 
legislation  is  asked  on  the  other  side."  John 
Sherman,  when  he  was  the  Republican  candi 
date  for  the  Speakership,  made  a  similar 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        167 

"great  declaration,"  that  "there  is  not  one  sub 
ject  of  sectional  controversy  which  can  pos 
sibly  arise,  unless  it  is  thrust  upon  us  by  the 
opponents."  From  the  time  of  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  most  extreme 
Republican  propositions  aimed  at  nothing 
more  than  "reinstating  things  as  they  were 
prior"  to  that  repeal.  "The  struggle  has  been, 
on  the  part  of  the  Administration,  in  Demo 
cratic  hands,  to  force  slavery  into"  Kansas 
against  the  will  of  the  people.  The  struggle, 
on  the  part  of  the  whole  body  of  the  Northern 
people,  has  been  to  prevent  slavery  from  being 
forced  into  Kansas."  Davis  had  been  "a  par 
ty  to  all  this  controversy,"  struggling  some 
times  mistakenly  to  do  what  he  thought  was 
best.  He  summarized  the  history  of  the 
Congressional  treatment  of  the  subject  to 
prove  his  point.  The  Republican  platform  at 
Chicago  left  out  the  provision  of  "the  wild 
platform"  of  1856,  which  called  for  laws  to 
"prohibit  in  the  Territories  those  twin  relics 
of  barbarism,  polygamy  and  slavery,"  and  the 
bills  which  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  "stiff 
Free  Soiler,"  introduced  into  Congress  for 
the  organization  of  new  Territories,  simply 
declared,  in  the  spirit  of  Clay,  that  nothing  in 
the  bills  should  be  taken  to  authorize  slavery, 
an  "imprudent"  declaration  of  opinion,  but 
not  a  "law  of  affirmative  exclusion."  The  men 


168       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

of  Maryland  were  exhorted  "to  look  at  the 
facts  and  to  remember  that,  among  the  mil 
lions  of  the  North,  there  are  men  as  wise  as 
we  are,  as  honest  as  we  are,  as  well  educated  as 
we  are,  having  as  great  interests  at  stake  in  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Union  as  we  have,  and  as 
earnestly  and  honestly  devoted  to  the  integrity 
of  the  Constitution  as  we  are,  and  that  they 
are  not  likely,  deliberately,  to  invite  civil 
war."  Those  who  were  "furious  on  the  negro 
question"  were  an  "equally  small  minority  in 
both  sections."  Their  "power  is  clamor." 
The  proof  that  the  "conservative  masses  of 
the  North"  were  misrepresented  was  shown, 
in  that  the  Abolitionists  were  talking  of  put 
ting  a  separate  Presidential  ticket  in  the  field, 
and  that  the  investigations  of  the  John  Brown 
raid,  made  by  the  United  States  Senate  and  by 
the  Virginia  Legislature,  found  no  evidence 
implicating  "any  man  holding  political  posi 
tion,  or  aspiring  to  hold  any  position,  in  the 
North,  with  that  insane  performance."  Even 
the  Abolitionists  in  general,  "so  far  from  ex 
citing  rebellion,  are  of  the  Quaker's  opinion, 
that  it  is  wrong  to  shed  blood."  If  Lincoln 
wins,  he  will  let  the  slavery  question  rest 
where  it  is,  and  will  agree  with  Bates,  who 
stated  that,  with  slavery  in  the  States,  Con 
gress  had  no  concern,  but  that  Congress  ought 
not  to  exercise  the  power  which  it  had,  so  as 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         169 

to  "plant  and  establish  slavery  in  any  Terri 
tory  heretofore"  free,  or  to  "acquire  tropical 
regions  for  the  purpose  of  converting  them 
into  slave  States."  The  Democratic  party 
alone  wished  to  disturb  the  status  quo,  to  ac 
quire  additional  territory  in  Mexico,  which 
was  free;  or  in  Cuba,  which  was  slave.  The 
threats  against  the  Union,  in  the  event  of  Lin 
coln's  election,  formed  "another  instance  of 
that  persistent  agitation  of  the  slavery  ques 
tion,  and  appealing  to  men's  fears  and  at 
tempting  to  shake  their  nerves,  which  has  been 
the  policy,  in  my  judgment,  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  for  a  great  many  years  past." 
Davis  did  not  share  any  fear  of  disunion,  and 
he  was  averse  to  the  fusion  movement  against 
Lincoln,  which  had  begun  in  some  States.  If 
there  were  real  danger,  "all  parties  should  be 
merged  in  the  presence  of  the  over-ruling  ne 
cessity  of  the  country,"  over  the  whole  coun 
try,  and  not  merely  in  one  or  two  doubtful 
States  in  the  North.  For  himself,  Davis  said 
again  that  he  would  "do  anything  that  is  hon 
orable  to  elect  John  Bell  to  the  Presidency," 
but  he  would  "not  give  the  lie  to  all  political 
truth  by  casting  a  vote,  or  half  a  vote,  for  men 
with  whom  I  differ  on  every  political  ques 
tion."  Fusion  would  not  really  help  Bell.  If 
the  conditions  wrere  as  grievous  as  the  Demo 
crats  say,  let  them  abandon  their  candidates, 


170       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

vote  for  Bell,  the  Union  candidate,  and  cer 
tainly  defeat  Lincoln.  A  fusion  of  Bell  voters 
with  the  Democrats  would  probably  throw 
the  election  into  the  House,  where  "the  in 
sane  method  of  assault  upon  and  misrepresen 
tation  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  opinions"  by  a  portion 
of  Bell's  supporters,  had  "put  an  end  to  the 
possibility"  of  the  Republicans  voting  for 
Bell.  The  Democratic  States  would  not  vote 
for  Bell,  and  there  would  probably  be  no  elec 
tion  in  the  House.  "Scenes  of  violence  and 
tumult"  might  follow.  Davis  had  gone 
through  two  contests  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  for  the  election  of  Speaker  and  had 
"seen  those  scenes  of  violence;  I  have  heard 
words  of  menace;  I  have  looked,  from  day  to 
day,  to  some  outbreak  that  would  drench  that 
hall  in  blood."  "By  the  infinite  blessing  of 
Providence,  that  danger  has  been  averted," 
but  Davis  would  not  take  the  risk  again  of 
bringing  into  the  House  a  controversy  which 
the  people  ought  to  decide.  The  Democratic 
majority  in  the  Senate  would  gladly  elect  one 
of  that  party  as  Vice-President,  if  possible, 
and,  if  not,  may  prefer  to  have  a  year  of  in 
terregnum,  or  to  elect  Breckenridge  as  Presi 
dent  of  the  Senate  and  treat  him  as  President 
of  the  United  States.  "When  the  matter  goes 
to  the  Senate,  if  they  see  fit  to  make  no  elec 
tion,  we  are  pushed  upon  this  dangerous  alter- 


CHAPTER  ¥11—1859-1861        171 

native,  a  vacant  or  a  disputed  Presidency." 
Douglas,  Breckenridge,  or  even  Bell,  are  as 
sectional  candidate  as  is  Lincoln,  for  it  is  the 
misery  of  our  condition  that,  turn  wherever  we 
may,  we  find  that  this  infernal  strife  has  split 
every  body  into  a  thousand  pieces,  and  no  man 
can  tell  where  to  find  the  piece  that  belongs  to 
him."  This  condition  should  be  faced.  "There 
is  a  degree  of  timidity  that  is,  of  all  things,  in 
my  judgment,  the  most  dangerous  in  political 
life.  Half  the  blood  that  was  shed  in  the 
French  Revolution  was  shed  from  sheer  ter 
ror.  It  was  not  courage,  it  was  not  ferocity, 
it  was  sheer  terror  that  made  them  cut  their 
neighbors'  throats  today,  lest  those  neighbors 
should  cut  theirs  tomorrow.  That  is  the  state 
of  mind  in  which  the  conduct  of  too  many  in 
this  canvass  tends  to  throw  the  people  of  the 
United  States."  He  concluded  his  address 
with  an  account  of  the  destruction  of  the  im 
age  of  Serapis  at  Alexandria,  and  with  the 
cry,  "Gentlemen,  smite  fearlessly  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  The  Union  will  survive  its  frag 


ments." 


Mindful  of  the  dire  emergency,  Davis 
wrote  from  Washington  a  public  letter  to  his 
constituents  on  January  2,  i86i.17  Lincoln 
had  been  elected;  South  Carolina  had  seceded. 
The  other  far-Southern  States  were  following 
her.  When  Congress  met  in  December,  Davis 


172       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

had  been  named  as  the  member  from  Mary 
land  of  the  special  committee,  consisting  of 
one  Congressman  from  each  State,  to  consider 
that  part  of  President  Buchanan's  message 
which  related  to  the  "present  perilous  condi 
tion  of  the  country."  From  that  close  contact 
with  the  course  of  events,  out  of  his  earnest 
soul,  he  tried  to  avert  a  disastrous  ending  of 
that  "drama  of  revolution"  which  had  been 
opened  in  South  Carolina.  To  his  vision, 
"Ambitious  and  restless  men,  availing  them 
selves  of  factitious  fear,  which  they  have  in 
spired,  and  sectional  passions,  which  they  have 
inflamed,  are  conspiring  the  overthrow  of  the 
Government.  They  hope  to  found  a  Southern 
Confederacy  on  the  fragments  of  the  United 
States  of  America,"  and  ask  Maryland  to  join 
it,  rather  than  to  "desert  the  South  and  join 
the  North."  Davis  replied  that  such  was 
not  the  question  which  Maryland  was  "called 
upon  to  answer.  Maryland  is  now  joined  to 
both  the  free  and  the  slave  States,  under  the 
wisest  Constitution  and  by  the  best  govern 
ment  the  world  ever  saw.  That  government 
has  never  wronged  her,  or  failed  to  protect 
her.  The  formation  of  a  Southern  Confed 
eracy  must  be  preceded  by  the  destruction  of 
that  government.  Till  it  is  broken  up  and  its 
armies  defeated,  there  can  be  no  Southern 
Confederacy.  Maryland,  therefore,  is  asked, 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        173 

not  whether  she  prefers  to  enter  a  Northern 
or  a  Southern  Confedracy,  but  she  is  asked  to 
form  a  coalition  to  break  up  and  destroy  the 
Constitution  which  Washington  founded  and 
to  plunge  into  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war  for 
the  purpose  of  creating  a  Southern  Confed 
eracy.  That  is  the  true  question  you  have  to 
consider,  for  peaceful  secession  is  a  delusion, 
and  if  you  yield  to  the  arts  now  employed  to 
delude  you,  the  soil  of  Maryland  will  be 
trampled  by  armies  struggling  for  the  Na 
tional  Capitol." 

Davis  unhesitatingly  answered  his  question 
by  saying  that  "the  interests  of  Maryland  are 
indissolubly  connected  with  the  interests  of 
the  United  States;  any  division  of  the  confed 
eracy  is  to  her  fatal."  His  foresight  led  him 
to  predict  that,  "no  matter  what  new  combi 
nations  arise,  whether  Maryland  stands  alone 
or  unites  her  fate  to  any  new  confederacy  on 
her  Northern  or  her  Southern  border,  she  is 
utterly  ruined  and  prostrate,  for  this  genera 
tion  at  least.  When  she  will  revive,  God  only 
knows.  If  the  present  Government  be  de 
stroyed,  Maryland  slaveholders  lose  the  only 
guarantee  for  the  return  of  their  slaves. 
Every  commercial  line  of  communication  is 
severed.  Custom  house  barriers  arrest  her 
merchants  at  every  frontier.  Her  commerce 
on  the  ocean  is  the  prey  of  every  pirate,  or  the 


i74       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

sport  of  every  maritime  power.  Her  great 
railroad  loses  every  connection  which  makes 
it  valuable.  If  two  republics  divide  the  ter 
ritory  of  the  United  States,  Maryland  is 
ruined,  whichever  she  join." 

If  she  joins  the  South,  "her  slaves  will 
walk  over  the  Pennsylvania  line  unmolested," 
and  the  reopened  African  slave  trade  will  de 
stroy  the  value  of  those  who  may  remain. 
"Free  trade  will  open  every  port,  and  cotton 
and  woolen  factories  and  iron  and  machine 
works  of  Maryland  would  be  prostrate  before 
European  competition."  Baltimore  will  not 
be  the  emporium  of  such  a  republic.  "Noth 
ing  intended  for  the  South  will  ever  pass  Nor 
folk,  and  from  the  West  we  will  be  severed 
by  custom  houses,  duties  and  political  antipa 
thies  in  favor  of  New  York."  "The  expenses 
of  government  must  be  doubled  by  the  neces 
sity  of  a  large  standing  army,  for  all  the  con 
ditions  of  present  security  will  be  gone;  and 
a  great  Northern  power,  divided  from  us  by 
an  air  line,  will  be  an  ever-impending  danger. 
In  the  war  of  separation,  and  even  after, 
Maryland  will  be  an  outgoing  province,  with 
out  a  fortification  or  a  natural  boundary,  al 
ways  overrun  at  the  first  sound  of  arms,  in 
capable  of  being  defended  by  the  weaker 
power,  of  which  she  will  form  a  part,  whose 
natural  line  of  defense  must  be  the  Potomac, 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        175 

and  on  this  side  of  which  no  Southern  army 
would  venture  a  decisive  battle." 

Joining  a  Northern  republic  would  also  be 
ruinous  for  slavery  and  Southern  trade  would 
be  lost;  but  there  can  be  no  division  of  the 
Union  along  State  lines.  "Western  Virginia 
belongs  to  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Vir 
ginia  can  never  withdraw  from  the  existing 
Confederacy  undivided;  her  western  boun 
dary  will  be  the  Blue  Ridge.  Maryland  will 
be  swayed  by  adverse  forces,  which  will  prob 
ably  give  her  northern  and  western  counties 
to  Pennsylvania;  her  peninsular  to  Virginia." 
As  to  Baltimore,  whatever  may  be  her  sym 
pathies  "in  the  present  political  heats,"  in  the 
long  run  her  interests  will  decide  her  future 
relations. 

In  spite  of  these  consequences,  men,  "madly 
bent  on  revolution,"  wish  the  "convocation  of 
the  Legislature."  Men  join  with  them  who 
are  strangers  to  these  purposes  and  blind  to 
the  results  of  such  a  session,  which  will  "in 
spire  the  revolutionists,"  "dishearten  the 
friends  of  the  Government"  in  the  South,  "de 
stroy  the  moderate  feelings  of  the  free  States," 
and  "greatly  embarrass  the  President"  "The 
halls  of  legislation  will  immediately  become 
the  focus  of  revolutionary  conspiracy,"  which 
may  lead  to  anarchy  and  the  flames  of  civil 
war,  while  "within  its  constitutional  powers" 


176       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  Legislature  can  do  nothing.  Maryland's 
only  danger  is  the  destruction  of  the  Union. 
Every  person  in  Maryland  is  bound  to  obey 
the  Federal  laws  as  enforced  by  the  Presi 
dent.  The  Constitution  forbids  any  agree 
ment  between  Maryland  and  any  other  State 
for  any  purpose,  and  a  convention  of  the  cen 
tral  slave  States  would  be  an  illegal  and  pos 
sibly  a  "treasonable  assembly  to  levy  war  for 
the  overthrow  of  the  Government."  "Mary 
land  is  not  ready  to  be  entrapped.  Those  who 
propose  such  a  convention  should  specify  "the 
acts,  so  plainly  unconstitutional  and  so  intol 
erably  oppressive  to  them,  that  they  are  will 
ing  to  tear  the  Government  to  pieces  in  the 
pursuit  of  redress."  If  there  are  such  acts, 
and  the  people  prepare  to  destroy  the  Union, 
let  them  also  "prepare  their  hearts  for  war, 
and  their  fields  for  desolation,  and  their  chil 
dren  for  slaughter.  Let  them  prepare  for  an 
era  of  proscriptions,  confiscations  and  exiles, 
to  be  followed  by  anarchy  and  be  closed  by 
the  rude  despotism  of  the  sword."  There  are 
no  sufficient  causes  for  secession.  "Will  any 
one  propose  gravely  to  rush  on  such  ruin,  be 
cause  a  few  negroes  have  run  away  and  not 
been  caught — because  some  liberty  bills  have 
been  passed  and  never  acted  on;  because  a 
mob,  once  in  a  while,  has  resisted  an  unpopu 
lar  law;  because  Maryland  has  been  in  a  mi- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         177 

nority  in  a  Presidential  election?  Are  the 
people  of  Maryland  dreaming  of  a  revolution, 
in  the  event  of  a  failure  to  resettle  the  Terri 
torial  question  to  the  satisfaction  of  Southern 
secessionists?"  No,  "if  discontented  men  at 
tempt  to  destroy  the  Government,  because  it 
is  not  changed  to  suit  them,  the  right  and  the 
duty,  the  highest  interest  and  the  loyal  honor 
of  Maryland  require  her  to  sustain  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Constitution, 
which  are  her  only  safety.  Let  us  not  counte 
nance  revolutionary  violence  to  redress  imagi 
nary  wrongs  by  impossible  measures."  Davis 
believed  that  "the  firm  attitude  of  Maryland 
is  now  the  chief  hope  of  peace,"  and  that  if 
the  citizens  of  the  State  "firmly  adhere  to  the 
United  States  against  all  enemies,  resolved  to 
obey  the  Constitution  and  see  it  obeyed,  your 
example  will  arrest  the  spirit  of  revolution 
and  greatly  aid  the  Government  in  restoring, 
without  bloodshed,  its  authority." 

When  the  report  of  the  special  committee 
of  thirty-three  was  made,  Davis  addressed  the 
House  on  February  7,18  expressing  the  strong 
est  Union  sentiments.  Five  years  later  Cres- 
well  said:  "For  such  utterances  only  a  small 
part  of  the  people  of  his  State  was  on  that  day 
prepared.  Seduced  by  the  wish,  they  still  be 
lieved  that  the  Union  could  be  preserved  by 
fair  and  mutual  concessions.19  His  language 

12 


178       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

was  then  deemed  too  harsh  and  unconciliatory 
and  hundreds,  I  among  the  number,  de 
nounced  him  in  unmeasured  terms.  Before 
the  expiration  of  three  months,  events  had 
demonstrated  his  wisdom  and  our  folly."  Yet 
there  is  small  wonder  that  the  scorching  words 
with  which  he  began  his  speech  startled  men, 
who  still  hoped  against  hope  for  an  accommo 
dation.  Rising  in  his  place,  Davis  cried: 
"We  are  at  the  end  of  the  insane  revel  of  par 
tisan  license  which  for  thirty  years  has,  in  the 
United  States,  worn  the  mask  of  government 
We  are  about  to  close  that  masquerade  by  the 
dance  of  death.  The  natives  of  the  world  look 
anxiously  to  see  if  the  people,  ere  they  tread 
that  measure,  will  come  to  themselves."  Ve 
hemently  he  attacked  the  policy  of  the  Demo 
cratic  administrations,  which  had  as  its  result 
that  "the  original  ideas  of  the  Constitution 
have  faded  from  men's  minds,"  so  that  they 
no  longer  remember  "that  the  United  States  is 
a  government  entitled  to  respect  and  com 
mand,  that  the  Constitution  furnishes  remedy 
for  every  grievance  and  a  mode  of  redress  for 
every  wrong;  that  the  States  are  limited  with 
in  their  spheres,  are  charged  with  no  duties  to 
each  other,  and  bear  no  relation  to  the  other 
States,  excepting  through  their  common  head, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States."  Con 
sequently,  "unconstitutional  commissioners 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         179 

flit  from  State  to  State,  or  assemble  at  the  na 
tional  capital  to  counsel  peace  or  instigate 
war."  To  Davis's  view,  "the  operation  of  the 
Government  has  been  withdrawn  from  the 
great  public  interests,  in  order  that  competing 
parties  might  not  be  embarrassed  in  the  strug 
gle  for  power  by  diversities  of  opinion  upon 
questions  of  policy,  and  the  public  mind,  in 
that  struggle,  has  been  exclusively  turned  on 
the  slavery  question,  which  no  interest  re 
quired  to  be  touched  by  any  department  of 
the  Government."  While  the  people's  "pas 
sions,  inflamed  by  the  fierce  struggle  for  the 
Presidency,  were  the  easy  prey  of  revolution 
ary  audacity,  within  two  months  of  a  formal, 
peaceful,  regular  election  of  the  Chief  Magis 
trate  of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  whole 
body  of  the  people  of  each  State  competed 
with  zeal  for  the  prize,  without  any  new  event 
intervening,  without  any  new  grievances  al 
leged,  without,  any  new  menaces  having  been 
made,  we  have  seen,  in  the  short  course  of  one 
month,  a  small  portion  of  the  population  of 
six  States  transcend  the  bounds,  at  a  single 
leap,  at  once  of  the  State  and  the  National 
Constitutions,  usurp  the  extraordinary  prerog 
ative  of  repealing  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, 
exclude  the  great  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens 
from  the  protection  of  the  Constitution,  de 
clare  themselves  emancipated  from  the  obli- 


i8o       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

gations  which  the  Constitution  pronounces  to 
be  supreme  over  them  and  over  their  laws, 
arrogate  to  themselves  all  the  prerogatives  of 
independent  power,  rescind  the  acts  of  cession 
of  the  public  property,  occupy  the  public  of 
fices,  seize  the  fortresses  of  the  United  States, 
confided  to  the  faith  of  the  people  among 
whom  they  were  placed,  embezzle  the  public 
arms  concentrated  there  in  defense  of  the 
United  States,  array  thousands  of  men  in  arms 
against  the  United  States,  and  actually  wage 
war  on  the  Union  by  besieging  two  of  their 
fortresses  and  firing  on  a  vessel  bearing,  under 
the  flag  of  the  United  States,  reinforcements 
and  provisions  to  one  of  them."  The  disloyal 
conduct  of  Buchanan's  Cabinet  appeared  to 
obliterate  the  "very  boundaries  of  right  and 
wrong,"  and  "the  doom  of  the  Republic  seems 
to  be  sealed,  when  the  President,  surrounded 
by  such  ministers,  permits,  without  rebuke, 
the  Government  to  be  betrayed,  neglects  the 
solemn  warning  of  the  first  soldier  of  the  age 
(General  Scott),  till  almost  every  fort  is  a 
prey  to  domestic  treason,  and  accepts  assur 
ances  of  peace  in  his  time,  at  the  expense  of 
leaving  the  national  honor  unguarded.  His 
message  gives  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies 
of  the  Union  by  avowing  his  inability  to  main 
tain  its  integrity,  and,  paralyzed  and  stupe 
fied,  he  stands  amid  the  crash  of  the  falling 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        181 

republic,  still  muttering — not  in  my  time — 
not  in  my  time — after  me,  the  deluge." 

Buchanan  has  earned  the  Tacitean  phrase, 
"consensu  omnium  capax  imperil,  nisi  im- 
perasset" ;  for  "the  acquisition  of  supreme 
power  has  revealed  his  incapacity  and  crowns 
him  with  the  unenviable  honor  of  the  chief 
destroyer  of  his  country's  greatness." 

If  the  rebellious  States  are  recognized,  we 
"abandon  the  Gulf  and  Coast  of  Mexico,  or 
surrender  the  forts  of  the  United  States;  yield 
the  privilege  of  free  commerce  and  free  inter 
course;  strike  down  the  guarantees  of  the 
Constitution  for  our  fellow-citizens  in  all  that 
wide  region;  create  a  thousand  miles  of  inte 
rior  frontier  to  be  furnished  with  internal  cus 
tom  houses  and  armed  with  internal  forts,  to 
be  themselves  a  prey  to  the  next  caprice  of 
State  sovereignty;  organize  a  vast  standing 
army,  ready  at  a  moment's  warning  to  resist 
aggression;  create  upon  our  Southern  boun 
dary  a  perpetual  foothold  for  foreign  powers 
whenever  caprice,  ambition  or  hostility  may 
see  fit  to  invite  the  despot  of  France,  or  the 
aggressive  power  of  England  to  attack  us 
upon  our  undefended  frontier;  sever  that 
unity  of  territory  which  we  have  spent  mil 
lions  and  labored  through  three  generations 
to  create  and  establish;  pull  down  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  and  take  a  lower  station 


182       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

among  the  nations  of  the  earth;  abandon  the 
high  prerogative  of  leading  the  march  of  free 
dom,  the  hope  of  struggling  nationalities,  the 
terror  of  frowning  tyrants,  the  boast  of  the 
world,  the  light  of  liberty,  to  become  the  sport 
and  prey  of  despots  whose  thrones  we  consoli 
date  by  our  fall ;  to  be  greeted  by  Mexico  with 
the  salutation,  'Art  thou  also  become  weak  as 
we?  Art  thou  become  like  unto  us?'  This  is 
recognition."  "Refuse  to  recognize!  We 
must  not  coerce  a  State  in  the  peaceful  process 
of  secession.  We  must  not  coerce  a  State  en 
gaged  in  the  peaceful  process  of  firing  into  a 
United  States  vessel  to  prevent  the  re-enforce 
ment  of  a  United  States  fort.  We  must  not 
coerce  States  which,  without  any  declaration 
of  war  or  any  act  of  hostility  of  any  kind, 
have  united,  as  have  Mississippi,  Florida  and 
Louisiana,  their  joint  force  to  seize  a  public 
fortress.  We  must  not  coerce  a  State  which 
has  planted  cannon  upon  its  shores  to  prevent 
the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  We 
must  not  coerce  a  State  which  has  robbed  the 
United  States  Treasury.  This  is  peaceful  se 
cession."  His  clear  vision  appreciated  fully 
the  situation.  He  did  not  wish  "to  exasperate 
the  already  too  much  inflamed  state  of  the 
public  mind;"  but  he  insisted  "that  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  laws 
made  in  pursuance  thereof  must  be  enforced; 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        183 

and  they  who  stand  across  the  path  of  that 
enforcement  must  either  destroy  the  power  of 
the  United  States,  or  it  will  destroy  them." 
He  still  hoped  that  such  collision  might  be 
avoided,  that  "the  revenues  may  be  collected 
in  disaffected  ports  on  board  United  States 
ships,"  that  no  vessel  shall  be  allowed  "to  pass 
out  unless  she  has  papers  of  the  United  States 
on  board,"  that  postal  routes  may  be  suspend 
ed,  that  courts  of  justice  "may  be  supported  as 
they  were  in  Utah,"  or  removed  to  "States 
which  are  not  disturbed."  Even  so  clear  a 
vision  as  his,  still  hoped  that  these  "regular 
peaceful  methods"  would  "allow  time  for  re 
flection."  Davis  believed  that  "the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  was"  vested  by  the 
Constitution  with  adequate  power  to  meet 
every  emergency.  It  is  required  to  guarantee 
a  republican  form  of  government  to  every 
State.  A  government  whose  officers  are  not 
sworn  to  supportthe  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is  mere  usurpation  and  not  a  republi 
can  government."  The  Federal  Government 
has  the  power  to  "suppress  insurrection,"  and 
"insurrections  ordered  by  State  authority  will 
be  suppressed  as  promptly  as  others."  "If,  to 
the  regular  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  armed  resistance  shall  be  made,  the 
Government  has  authority  to  disperse  those 
who  oppose  the  enforcement.  This  is  not  war. 


184       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

It  is  supporting  the  civil  power  by  the  mili 
tary  arm,  against  unlawful  combinations  too 
powerful  to  be  otherwise  dealt  with.  When 
the  United  States  suppress  an  insurrection,  or 
enforce  the  laws,  they  harm  only  those  actu 
ally  resisting,  and  then,  only  so  far  as  to  re 
move  their  resistance  to  the  civil  arm.  Its  end 
is  their  dispersion.  The  United  States  carry 
the  Constitution  before  their  arms;  its  provi 
sions  hedge  their  bayonets,  and  every  weapon 
sinks  when  its  authority  is  admitted." 

The  war  is  due  to  the  "revolutionary  fac 
tion,"  long  "mingled  in  the  ranks"  of  the 
Democratic  party,  to  the  "tenacity  with  which 
defeated  politicians  cling  to  power,  and  to 
the  excitement  of  the  popular  mind  by  "fierce 
discussions  upon  the  topic  of  slavery,  on  which 
the  Southern  people  are  so  justly  sensitive." 
In  these  discussions  there  have  been  made 
"the  grossest  misrepresentations  of  the  pur 
poses  of  the  great  body  of  the  Northern  peo 
ple."  Without  a  constitutional  amendment, 
Davis  believed  that  there  might  be  peace,  if 
Northern  men,  like  Charles  Francis  Adams 
and  Thomas  Corwin,  could  induce  the  South 
to  believe  that  there  existed  no  purpose  to  dis 
turb  slavery  in  any  State. 

Davis  then  proceeded  to  lay  before  the 
House  the  results  to  which  the  Committee  of 
Thirty-three  had  come,  "to  compare  the  rem- 


CHAPTER  ¥11—1859-1861         185 

edies  that  the  majority  and  the  minority  of 
the  committee,  respectively,  propose,  and  to 
contrast  the  complaints  and  the  remedies  of 
the  minority  with  themselves." 

The  first  recommendation  was  that  an  en 
deavor  be  made  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the 
personal  liberty  laws  of  the  States  and  the 
amendment  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  so  "as 
not  to  give  cause  or  pretext  for  the  fears  which 
it  has  occasioned  at  the  North,"  by  providing, 
in  case  of  a  claim  of  freedom,  for  a  trial  be 
fore  a  court  of  the  United  States  in  the  slave 
State  whither  the  alleged  fugitive  is  carried. 
The  plan  of  the  minority,  that  when  "fugi 
tives  are  rescued  by  violence,  the  United  States 
shall  pay  the  value  to  their  owner  and  have 
the  privilege  of  sueing  the  county  or  district 
permitting  the  rescue  for  the  amount,"  would 
"perpetuate,"  not  "close  the  slavery  contro 
versy." 

As  to  Territories,  the  South  had  secured  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  and 
now  demands  that  it  be  restored  by  constitu 
tional  amendment.  "A  more  flagrant,  inex 
plicable,  unintelligible  case  of  capricious  in 
consistency  is  unknown  to  history."  No  law 
can  be  passed  through  Congress,  "establishing 
slavery  in  an  inch  of  territory  where  it  does 
not  already  exist,"  yet  this  amendment  stated 
that  "slavery  is  hereby  recognized  as  existing" 


1 86       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

south  of  36°  30'  north  latitude.  The  South 
not  only  asks  an  impossible  thing,  but  also  asks 
"the  people  of  the  North  to  declare  that  they 
have  been  hypocritical  in  their  opinions,  that 
African  slavery  is  not  merely  unpolitic,  but 
immoral,  and  themselves  ingraft  in  the  Con 
stitution  a  doctrine  which  you  accuse  them  of 
hating  so  eternally  that  they  are  struggling  to 
destroy  it,  illegally  and  unconstitutionally.1' 
The  only  territory  then  owned  by  the  United 
States  south  of  the  Missouri  line  was  that  of 
New  Mexico,  and  the  proposal  of  C.  F.  Ad 
ams,  which  Davis  endorsed,  was  to  form  that 
into  a  State,  removing  the  subject  of  contro 
versy,  and  to  leave  the  residue  of  the  terri 
tory  north  of  the  line  to  the  administration  of 
the  law.  In  the  two  months  of  the  session 
which  had  passed  no  member  had  urged  the 
exclusion  of  slavery  from  this  Northern  re 
gion.  The  propositions  which  Davis  advo 
cated  would  satisfy  the  people,  and  he  be 
lieved  that  they  would  prevent  Virginia  from 
seceding. 

He  could  speak  for  Maryland.  "Confident 
in  the  strength  of  this  great  Government  to 
protect  every  interest,  grateful  for  almost  a 
century  of  unalloyed  blessings,  she  has  fo 
mented  no  agitation;  she  has  done  no  act  to 
disturb  the  public  peace;  she  has  rested  in  the 
consciousness  that,  if  there  be  wrong,  the  Con- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        187 

gress  of  the  United  States  will  remedy  it; 
and  that  none  exists  which  revolution  would 
not  aggravate."  He  asserted  that  he  spoke  for 
"the  people  of  Maryland,  who  are  loyal  to  the 
United  States,"  and  continued,  saying:  "In 
Maryland  we  are  dull  and  cannot  comprehend 
the  right  of  secession.  We  do  not  recognize 
the  right  of  Maryland  to  repeal  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States ;  and  if  any  conven 
tion  there  called  by  whatever  authority,20  un 
der  whatever  auspices,  undertake  to  inaugu 
rate  revolution  in  Maryland,  their  authority 
will  be  resisted  and  defied  in  arms  on  the  soil 
of  Maryland,  in  the  name  and  by  the  author 
ity  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
A  majority  have  no  more  right  than  a  minor 
ity.  The  right  of  a  majority  is  a  constitu 
tional  right.  For  the  destruction  of  the  Con 
stitution  they  can  have  no  right.  We  in  Mary 
land  will  submit  to  no  attempt  of  a  minority, 
or  a  majority,  to  drag  us  from  under  the  flag 
of  the  Union."  With  such  brave  words  did 
he  hearten  his  followers.  With  the  majority 
of  the  Committee,  Davis  saw  no  need  to  pro 
hibit  by  constitutional  amendment  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  in  the  forts,  dockyards,  and 
District  of  Columbia,  nor  of  the  interstate 
slave  trade,  nor  to  make  these  prohibitions  and 
the  articles  touching  the  ratio  of  representa 
tion  and  fugitives  from  labor,  unchangeable, 


i88       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

for  no  one  proposed  to  change  them.  "The 
question  of  the  immunity  of  slavery  in  the 
States"  appeared,  however,  to  Davis  to  be 
"very  different."  When  slavery  was  estab 
lished  by  a  State,  the  "majority  proposed  to 
quiet  forever  apprehension  that  the  North 
would  destroy"  the  institution,  and  "anew  to 
consecrate  the  principle  of  State  rights  in  in 
ternal  affairs  by  forbidding  any  change  in  the 
Constitution  affecting  slavery  in  the  States." 
Davis  knew  thoroughly,  however,  that  "no 
guarantee  of  slavery  will  silence  agitation,  or 
the  pulpit,  or  the  press,  or  incendiary  publica 
tions,  or  incitements  to  revolt,  or  the  organ 
ized  invasion  of  States,"  like  John  Brown's. 
Yet  he  also  knew  that  the  Northern  people 
now  disclaimed  the  contemplation  of  disturb 
ing  slavery  in  the  States,  and  that  if  that  im 
pression  could  be  spread  throughout  the  South 
"the  revolutionists  will  have  few  followers 
and  peace  and  harmony  will  be  restored  to  our 
people,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  disturb 
them." 

In  the  debates  of  the  Congressional  Session 
of  1860-61,  outside  of  the  forementioned 
speech,  Davis  took  almost  no  part,  except  to 
record  his  vote  21  in  favor  of  Major  Ander 
son's  course  in  removing  to  Fort  Sumter.22  He 
was  active  during  those  months  in  the  effort  to 
preserve  the  Union,  and  Elaine,  a  clear-sight- 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        189 

ed  observer,  wrote  in  after  years  that,  though 
Davis  had  not  co-operated  with  the  Republi 
cans  in  1860,  "under  all  circumstances,"  he 
was  a  devoted  friend  of  the  Union,  and  that, 
"more  than  to  all  others,  to  him  is  due  the 
maintenance  of  loyalty  in  Maryland."  * 

As  early  as  January,  1861,  Lincoln  was  con 
sidering  Davis  as  a  possible  member  of  his 
Cabinet,24  and  such  an  appointment  was 
strongly  urged,  not  only  by  the  Union  men  of 
Maryland,  but  also  by  such  an  astute  politi 
cian  from  another  State  as  Thurlow  Weed.25 
The  influence  of  the  Blair  family,  however, 
was  sufficient  to  have  one  of  their  members 
named  as  Postmaster-General,  and  as  Mont 
gomery  Blair  was  a  resident  of  Maryland, 
there  was,  of  course,  no  place  for  Davis. 
Blair's  influence  in  Maryland  was  small,  and 
he  was  not  regarded  as  one  of  the  State's  lead 
ers,  so  that  the  Border  State  Republicans  were 
dissatisfied.  As  the  Cabinet  contained  more 
former  Democrats  than  Whigs,  they  claimed 
that  it  was  not  as  strongly  Union  a  body  as 
Buchanan's  final  Cabinet,  which  contained 
Holt,  Dix  and  Stanton.  Lincoln,  however, 
held  to  his  decision  to  name  Blair  with  such 
firmness  that  he  said :  "When  that  slate  breaks 
again,  it  will  break  at  the  top."26  The  breach 
between  Lincoln  and  Davis  was  never  healed. 
The  latter  was  admitted  by  Lincoln's  *  friends 


190       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

to  be  a  "man  of  too  much  integrity  and  eleva 
tion  of  character  to  allow  the  imputation  that 
his  action  on  public  matters  was  dictated  en 
tirely  by  feeling  or  caprice,"  but  it  is  quite 
probable  that  Lincoln's  failure  to  select  a 
more  representative  man  had  its  effect  in 
causing  Davis  to  distrust  the  President's  wis 
dom.28 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VII. 

1.  On  March  21,  E.  J.  Hall  wrote  Coleman  Yellott,  Senator 
from  Baltimore  City,  asking  him  how  he  would  have  voted  on 
the  House  resolution.     He  responded  in  a  letter  dated  March 
28,  which  the  Baltimore  Clipper  of  April   3   said  was   a  fine 
campaign  document  and  which  was  published  in  pamphlet  form, 
with  the  title,  "The  North  and  the  South:  Reasons  Why  Cole 
man  Yellott,   the   State   Senator  of  Baltimore  City,  would   not 
have  voted  to  censure  Henry  Winter  Davis  for  voting  for  Wil 
liam  Pennington  for  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives." 
Yellott  said  that,  as  a  Southern  man  and  a  slaveholder,  he  would 
not  have  voted   for   McClernand,  for  he   regarded   the   Demo 
cratic  party  as  a  dangerous  enemy  to  the  true  interests  of  the 
South,   nor  would   he   have   voted   for   Pennington,   because   he 
was  a  sectional  candidate.     While  not  approving  Davis's  vote, 
he  would  not  have  censured  him,  and  he  pointed  out  the  fact 
that  the  Anti-Slavery  vote  decreased  from  1848  to  1852  because 
of   good   Whig   administration.     Yellott  objected    to    emigrants 
voting  on  the  slavery  question,  and  was  "ardently  attached  to  the 
principles  of  the  American  party." 

2.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  126. 

2a.     Brackett,  Negro  in  Maryland,  pp.  256  ff. 

3.  He  said  because  of  the  Police  bill   and  other  important 
matters.   Davis  rejoined  that  the  Police  bill   passed  before  his 
speech   and   the   session    of   the   Legislature    did    not   end    until 
March  10. 

4.  I,  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  498. 

5.  Speech  of  May  9. 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861        191 

6.  On  May  23. 

7.  On   June   9,    Grow,   of   Pennsylvania,     proposed     as     an 
amendment  that  the  railroad  be  required  to  connect  with  the 
P.,  W.  &  B.  R.  R.  in  Baltimore. 

8.  On  May  29. 

9.  On  June  n. 
10.     On  June  14. 

11.  As  chairman  of  the  conferees  on  the  Army  Appropria 
tion  bill,  he  submitted  a  report,  which  the  House   adopted  on 
June  19. 

12.  A.    K.    McClure,    "Lincoln    and    the    Men    of   the    War 
Time,"  41. 

13.  Burgess,  Civil  War,  I,  p.  67. 

14.  Globe,  June  20,  1860. 

15.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  146.     Davis's  position  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  following  letter,  undated,  in  the  possession  of  the 
author : 

MY  DEAR  NICHOLLS:  I  think  our  friends  have  just  cause  to 
be  disgusted  with  the  self-constituted  Union  party  leaders,  and 
your  resolution  to  make  your  own  nomination  for  Mayor  and 
not  to  submit  to  their  dictation  meets  my  hearty  approval. 

I  think  also  we  are  under  no  obligation  to  support  the  Union 
nominees  unless  we  think  it  advisable  so  to  do  to  save  Mary 
land  from  the  horrors  of  Democratic  rule,  and  I  confess  I  do 
not  think  it  possible  to  save  the  State  by  any  other  course  at 
this  time.  Thousands  who  would  support  Lincoln  will  also 
support  Bell,  but  many  who  will  support  Bell  will  not  support 
Lincoln. 

If  these  parties  divide  the  Democrats  must  take  the  State, 
and  we  lose  Court  of  Appeals,  the  Criminal  Court  Judge,  the 
Legislature,  a  Senator  in  Kennedy's  place  and  the  next  Gov 
ernor.  Surely  such  consequences  are  too  serious  to  be  encoun 
tered  merely  to  spite  ourselves  for  the  insolence  of  the  Union 
leaders.  The  State  of  Maryland  cannot  be  carried  for  Lincoln; 
there  should,  therefore,  be  no  Lincoln  ticket  in  Maryland  for  the 
same  reason  that  there  should  be  no  Bell  ticket  in  New  Jersey 
or  Pennsylvania.  Let  us  adhere  to  this  policy  and  we  will  save 
Maryland  from  the  Democrats  and  hold  the  future  in  our 
hands.  Do  nothing  rashly  till  I  see  you. 
Yours, 

H.  WINTER  DAVIS. 


192       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

16.  Davis  added  that  it  was  "difficult  for  any  one  who  knows 
anything  about  the  legal  points  really  involved   in  the  record 
before  the  Court  to  surmise  how  it  was  possible  for  them  even 
to  have  gotten  at  it." 

17.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  189. 

18.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  200. 

19.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXIII. 

20.  A  self-called  State  Convention  met  at  Baltimore  on  Feb 
ruary  18. 

21.  On  January  9. 

22.  On  March  2,  as  chairman  of  the  managers  on  part  of 
the  House,  he  presented  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Confer 
ence  on  the  Civil  Appropriation  bill. 

23.  I,  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  498. 

24.  3  Nicolay  &  Hay's  Lincoln,  364;  9,  Nicolay  &  Hay,  113. 
Lincoln's  biographers  state  that  Lincoln  had  the  highest  admira 
tion  for  Davis,  because  of  his  conduct  in  the  Thirty-fifth  Con 
gress. 

25.  I  Memoirs,  606.     See  Riddle's  Wade,  259. 

26.  Vide  3  Nicolay  &  Hay,  364;  I  Elaine's  Twenty  Years  in 
Congress,  285. 

27.  9  Nicolay  &  Hay,  113. 

28.  Inasmuch  as  Davis  had  supported  Bell  in  the  Presiden 
tial  campaign,  a  delegation  of  Republicans,  including  John  T. 
Graham,   who  in   earlier  and   later  years  was   a  faithful   fol 
lower  of  Davis,  waited  on  Lincoln  to  ask  that  some  other  than 
Davis  be  named.     They  said  that  no  one  but  a  man  who  voted 
the  Republican  ticket  in  the  preceding  year  should  be   named 
for  office.     "Why,  there  aren't  enough  of  you  to  fill  the  Mary 
land    offices,"    replied    Lincoln.     "Then    give    each    of    us    two 
offices,"  was  the  unabashed  response.     On  September  20,   1864, 
after   a   conversation    with   Lincoln    and   Blair    over   men    and 
things  in  Maryland,  Welles  wrote   (2  Welles  Diary,  153)  :  "In 
the  early  days  of  the  administration  Henry  Winter  Davis  and 
his  crew  had  been  more  regarded  than  they  deserved."     I  have 
found  absolutely  no  proof  of  this  statement.     Davis's  position  as 
a  Border  State  Union  man,  opposed  to  the  Abolitionists,  and  as 
an  opponent  of  Montgomery  Blair,   is   shown  by   a   story  that 
Judge   Hugh   L.   Bond   told   Capt.   H.   P.   Goddard    (Baltimore 


CHAPTER  VII— 1859-1861         193 

Sunday  Herald,  March  8,  1903),  that  Davis  was  reluctant  to 
call  on  Wendell  Phillips  because  of  his  dislike  for  the  Aboli 
tionists,  and,  after  he  had  been  induced  to  call,  he  said:  "How 
can  Phillips  be  honest  and  look  so  like  Montgomery  Blair?" 

Mr.  J.  F.  Essary,  in  his  Maryland  in  National  History,  at 
page  226,  states  that  Montgomery  Blair  was  for  some  time  a 
Know  Nothing,  and  that  his  departure  from  that  political  party 
caused  the  beginning  of  the  hostility  between  him  and  Davis. 
Mr.  John  T.  Graham,  who  was  a  prominent  member  of  the 
American  party  and  close  friend  of  Davis,  stated  in  December, 
1915,  that  if  Blair  was  ever  a  Know  Nothing,  he  was  very 
quiet  about  the  matter,  as  Graham  had  never  heard  of  it,  and 
that  from  his  close  intercourse  with  Davis,  Graham  was  able  to 
assert  positively  that  there  was  no  such  cause  for  the  unfriend 
liness  the  two  men  showed  each  other. 

The  following  letter  is  of  interest,  as  showing  the  relation 
of  the  Blairs  to  the  Maryland  Republicans: 

OFFICE  OF  THE  TRIBUNE, 

New  York,  August  24,  1860. 

Sit — You  ask  how  I  know  that  Frank  Blair  is  an  Emancipa 
tionist.  I  answer: 

1.  By  the  fact  that  he  has  emancipated  all  his  own  slaves. 

2.  By  his   open   avowals  in   many   speeches  that  he   favors 
emancipation  in  Missouri.     You  say  you  do  not  find  emancipa 
tion  set  forth  as  a  principle  in  the  Chicago  platform.     Of  course 
not.     Emancipation  is  an  affair  of  the  States  and  has  no  right 
to  a  place  in  the  national  platform. 

Yours, 

HORACE  GREELEY. 
JNO.  T.  GRAHAM,  ESQ., 
Baltimore,  Md. 


13 


i94       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SUPPORT  OF  THE    UNION 

(1861-63). 

During  the  troublous  weeks  of  the  Spring 
of  1861  no  one  was  more  outspoken  than  Davis 
for  the  Union  cause,  nor  did  anyone  do  more  to 
keep  Maryland  in  the  Union.  He  even  took 
so  extreme  a  stand  as  to  write  to  the  New  York 
Tribune,  with  James  R.  Partridge  and  Archi 
bald  Stirling,  Jr.,  and  request  that  the  arms, 
arsenals  and  forts  in  Maryland  be  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  Union  men  of  the  State.  When 
Lincoln  called  for  a  special  session  of  Con 
gress  and  it  was  necessary  to  elect  a  represen 
tative  from  the  Fourth  Congressional  District, 
Davis  at  once  announced  himself  as  a  candi 
date  "upon  the  basis  of  unconditional  main 
tenance  of  the  Union."  l  He  added :  "Should 
my  fellow-citizens  of  like  views  manifest  their 
preference  for  a  different  candidate  on  that 
basis,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  embarrass  them." 
He  was  not  a  self-seeker;  but,  as  no  one  else 
came  forward,  he  led  the  Union  forces  in  Bal 
timore.  Four  days  after  he  proclaimed  his 
candidacy,  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment 
attempted  to  march  through  Baltimore  to  the 
re-enforcement  of  Washington.  During  the 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863        195 

dark  days  which  followed  Davis  was  not  idle, 
but,  as  he  wrote  to  William  H.  Seward,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  on  April  28:  "I  have  been 
trying  to  collect  the  persons  appointed,  scat 
tered  by  the  storm,  and  to  compel  them  to  take 
their  offices  or  to  decline.  I  have  sought  men 
of  undoubted  courage  and  capacity  for  the 
places  vacated.  We  must  show  the  secession 
ists  that  we  are  not  frightened,  but  are  re 
solved  to  maintain  the  Government  in  the  ex 
ercise  of  all  its  functions  in  Maryland." 

"We  have  organized  a  guard,  who  will  ac 
company  the  officers  and  hold  the  public 
buildings  against  all  the  secessionists  in  Mary 
land.  A  great  reaction  has  set  in.  If  we 
now  act  promptly  the  day  is  ours  and  the  city 
is  safe." 

For  the  next  month  and  a  half  he  car 
ried  on,  without  cessation,  "the  most  bril 
liant  campaign  against  open  traitors,  doubters 
and  dodgers  that  unrivaled  eloquence,  cour 
age  and  activity  could  achieve.  Everywhere, 
day  and  night,  in  sunshine  and  storm,  in  the 
market  houses,  at  the  street  corners  and  in  the 
public  halls,  his  voice  rang  out  clear,  loud 
and  defiant  for  the  unconditional  maintenance 
of  the  Union."  2 

Though  defeated  in  this  contest,  he  never 
slackened  in  his  efforts  nor  in  his  "uncompro 
mising  devotion"  to  the  Union. 


196       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

As  a  leader  of  this  forlorn  hope,  at  the  spe 
cial  election  held  on  June  13,  he  was  defeated 
by  Henry  May,3  the  Conservative-Union  can 
didate,  with  secessionist  sympathies,  by  a  ma 
jority  of  2,048  votes  out  of  14,621  cast.4  Dur 
ing  the  canvass  he  openly  declared  himself  in 
favor  of  coercion  of  the  South,  and  frankly 
avowed  that  he  had  voted  against  the  Critten- 
den  Compromise,  which  was  preferred  by  the 
people  of  Maryland,  because  he  thought  that 
it  was  impracticable  and  imposed  terms  to 
which  the  free  States  ought  not  to  be  asked  to 
submit.  The  story  is  told  that  when  the  re 
turns  of  the  election  were  brought  him,  he  in 
terrupted  the  messenger,  who  was  expressing 
regret  over  May's  election,  with  the  inquiry: 
"How  many  votes  did  I  get?"  When  he  was 
told  he  received  more  than  6,000,  he  ex 
claimed:  "Thank  God.  If  as  many  men  as 
that  voted  for  me  today,  I  defy  them  to  take 
Maryland  out  of  the  Union." 

In  the  political  campaign  during  the  Au 
tumn  of  1861,  Davis  took  a  leading  part  on 
the  Union  side,  speaking  in  Baltimore  on  Oc 
tober  16  in  answer  to  an  address  from  Union 
men,  headed  by  Johns  Hopkins,5  and  at  Elk- 
ton  on  October  26.6  The  Baltimore  speech7 
is  an  important  one.  No  one  dreamed  any 
more  of  peaceful  secession.  Cotton  had  been 
shown  not  to  be  king,  and  the  Confederate 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863        197 

States  had  failed  to  "bring  to  their  knees  Great 
Britain  and  France"  through  that  product. 
The  Democrats  of  the  North,  "subservient  for 
a  long  generation  to  Southern  dictation,"  had 
proven  to  be  patriotic.  The  Southern  Repub 
lic  had  inaugurated  "an  era  of  confiscations, 
prosecutions  and  exiles,"  yet  the  "partisans  in 
Maryland  of  the  men  who  do  these  things 
make  our  streets  hideous  with  their  howl 
about  oppression,  and  invoke  all  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Constitution  that  their  allies 
have  spent  now  nearly  a  year  in  making  a 
dead  letter,  to  secure  their  immunity  here  and 
convert  this  heaven  into  their  hell."  Neutral 
ity  had  disappeared.  "The  enemy  is  at  the 
door,  and  the  people  of  Maryland  know  that 
they  who  are  not  their  friends  are  their  ene 
mies."  "The  men  with  secessionist  sympathies 
have  no  right  to  complain.  In  the  face  of  the 
mercy  of  the  Government  which  they  perpet 
ually  abuse,  they  insolently  meet  patient 
Union  men  upon  the  corners  of  the  streets,  in 
their  counting  rooms  and  in  the  parlor,  and  on 
the  Merchants'  Exchange,  and  wherever  men 
most  do  congregate,  and,  while  they  writhe 
under  the  blow  that  has  stricken  them  down 
here  and  taken  from  them  the  fruits  of  their 
treason,  before  they  could  fully  enjoy  them, 
their  only  comfort  is  to  appeal  to  the  future, 
to  promise  retribution,  to  intimate  that  assas- 


198       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

sination  may  cut  short  those  who  treat  them 
as  traitors;  that,  if  ever  they  get  the  upper 
hand,  the  lamp-post  will  be  graced  by  indi 
viduals  that  they  name;  that  they  will  not  be 
as  insanely  merciful  as  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  is;  and  these  things,  while  they 
venture  to  impeach  the  Government  for  harsh 
and  oppressive  measures." 

There  was  no  sign  of  Southern  victory,  there 
was  no  hope  of  peace,  though  some  desired  it 
without  honor.  Davis  appealed  to  the  "men 
of  Maryland,  who  remember  that  your  fore 
fathers  thought  seven  years  of  war  better  than 
peace  with  submission  and  degradation.  *  *  * 
to  revive  the  recollection  of  those  great  days 
and  act  upon  their  inspiration."  The  State 
had  been  accused  of  disloyalty,  yet  she  had 
never  hesitated  for  a  moment,  which  was 
more  than  could  be  said  for  any  other  slave 
State,  except  Delaware.  Governor  Hicks 
was  enabled  to  "resist  the  pressing  applica 
tions  for  the  convocation  of  the  Legislature," 
because,  "knowing  the  people  who  had  elected 
him,  their  temper  and  their  purposes,  he  felt 
that,  however  severe  the  pressure  might  be, 
where  one  person  sought  the  meeting  of  the 
Legislature,  there  were  thousands  who  stood 
by  him  in  his  refusal  to  convoke  them."  At 
the  time  of  Lincoln's  inauguration,  "the  des 
tiny  of  the  capital  of  the  United  States  lay  in 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       199 

the  hollow  of  the  hand  of  Maryland."  "If 
disloyalty  had  lain  as  a  cankering  worm  at 
the  heart  of  Maryland,  then  was  her  time," 
for  "she  could  have  presented  herself  before 
her  Southern  sisters,  dowering  them  with  the 
capital  of  the  country,  and  there  was  no  power 
that  could  have  prevented  that  gift."  The 
mob  of  the  i9th  of  April  was  aroused  by  the 
sympathizers  with  secession,  and  the  Gov 
ernor,  "suddenly  smitten  by  an  inexplicable 
terror,"  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  his 
enemies."  "One-third  of  the  people  of  Bal 
timore,  under  the  influence  of  pressure  and 
persuasion  and  delusion,  and  a  little  coercion, 
elected  secessionists  to  the  House  of  Dele 
gates."  Then  came  the  reaction.  No  county 
supported  the  revolution  in  Baltimore,  and 
the  Union  men  gradually  regained  the  upper 
hand  there.  In  Cecil,  Allegany  and  Wash 
ington  counties,  stanch  Union  resolutions  were 
adopted.  The  Legislature  did  not  dare  to  put 
to  a  vote  a  bill  establishing  "a  military  des 
potism  in  the  disguise  of  a  bill  of  public  safe 
ty."  During  all  of  April  Washington  was  at 
the  mercy  of  Maryland.  It  would  have  been 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Confederates,  had  their 
leaders  possessed  audacity.  Nearly  a  month 
after  the  mob,  General  Butler,  with  less  than 
a  thousand  men,  came  to  Baltimore  and  found 
no  opposition  there.  With  elaborate  sarcasm, 


200       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Davis  held  up  to  scorn  the  record  at  the  extra 
session  of  the  members  of  that  Legislature, 
who  were  not  the  "representatives  of  the  loyal 
and  free  men  of  Maryland,"  as  was  proven  by 
the  fact  that  at  the  Congressional  election  in 
June  the  Union  men  "cast  a  great  majority  of 
the  whole  vote  of  the  State."  The  Autumn 
had  come,  and  "secession  as  an  active,  dan 
gerous  and  agitating  element,  now  lies  writh 
ing  in  its  last  agonies  in  Maryland."  At  most, 
"very  nearly  one-third  of  the  people  of  the 
State  are  disloyal,"  and  "will  not  take  up  arms 
on  the  Union  side."  He  excused  the  failure 
of  Maryland  to  fill  her  quota  of  troops  as 
partly  the  fault  of  Governor  Hicks  and  partly 
the  fault  of  the  War  Department,  which  "felt 
small  confidence  in  the  Union  men  of  Mary 
land."  Now,  however,  there  was  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Administration  was  convinced 
of  their  loyalty,  and,  under  a  new  Governor 
and  Legislature,  Alaryland  would  stand  in  the 
foremost  rank  of  States.  Davis  had  voted  for 
Bell,  who  had  proven  a  traitor,  and  now  re 
joiced  in  Lincoln's  election  and  was  "more 
earnestly  anxious"  for  his  success  than  for  any 
other  one  who  had  "wielded  power  in  my 
day."  "This  Administration,  weak  or  strong," 
was  the  "last  and  only  hope  of  the  American 
people,"  and  must  be  "supported,  let  what 
ever  else  may  fail,  in  spite  of  the  contempt 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       201 

with  which  it  had  treated  the  people  of  Mary 
land."  The  Administration  had  naturally  or 
ganized  itself  "on  a  strictly  party  basis,"  had 
underrated  the  importance  of  securing  sup 
port  from  the  great  central  slave  States,  and 
had  selected  generals  unequal  to  the  needs  of 
the  occasion.  Lincoln's  policy  in  the  Border 
States,  especially  in  Maryland,  had  been  con 
spicuously  weak,  yet  a  "straightforward  hon 
esty"  had  "marked  his  every  act."  "The  pol 
icy  of  the  Administration  and  of  Congress  in 
dealing  with  this  rebellion  had  been  eminent 
ly  liberal.  The  policy  of  the  people  in  the 
rebellious  States  has  been  eminently  illiberal 
and  barbarous."  Lincoln  had  disowned  Fre 
mont's  freeing  of  the  slaves.  There  was  no 
danger  of  decrees  of  emancipation,  and,  con 
sequently,  none  of  servile  insurrection.  Davis 
believed  that  the  "signs  of  the  times  showed 
that  the  wisdom  of  the  Administration  was 
becoming  equal  to  the  enthusiasm,  the  devo 
tion,  the  liberality  with  which  the  people  and 
the  States  have  lavished  men  and  money  in  the 
cause  of  the  Republic,"  and  that,  with  such 
wisdom,  there  would  be  no  doubt  of  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Union.  "The  misfortune  of  Bull 
Run"  had  "broken  no  power,  nor  any  spirit;" 
it  "bowed  no  State,  nor  made  any  heart  fal 
ter;"  it  "was  felt  as  a  humiliation"  and  taught 
the  War  Department  that  "it  requires  military 


202       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

knowledge  to  lead  a  host,  that  it  requires 
months  to  convert  a  crowd  into  an  army;  that, 
without  artillery,  a  modern  army  is  nothing, 
and  that,  without  cavalry,  it  is  a  bird  without 
wings;  that  without  the  means  of  following 
up  a  victory,  victory  is  worthless."  Davis 
hoped  that  when  the  "banner  once  more  points 
forward,  it  will  proudly  advance,  until  the 
rejoicing  soldier  shall,  like  Xenophon's 
Greeks  at  the  prospect  of  the  Euxine,  after 
their  weary  march,  greet  with  the  cry  of  'The 
sea!  the  sea!'  the  glimmering  waves  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico."  He  neither  wanted  the  as 
sistance,  nor  feared  the  hostility  of  foreign 
powers.  "We  know  that  we  owe  them  noth 
ing  but  good  will,"  but  "we  rely  upon  their 
interests  and  not  upon  their  love,  to  let  us 
alone."  He  had  been  surprised  that  the  "great 
despot  of  Russia"  had  shown  sympathy  to  the 
United  States  and  would  "accept  the  cour 
tesy"  of  his  "good  wishes,"  but  would  "trust 
nothing  to  his  good  will ;  our  fate  is  in  our  own 
hands.  We  must  not  merely  defeat,  we  must 
destroy  the  army  before  Washington.  That 
will  break  the  military  power  of  the  rebellion, 
and  whenever  the  sword  shall  be  stricken 
from  the  hand  which  lifted  it  against  the 
Union,  the  terrors  of  despotic  power  will  van 
ish  from  the  land  and  grateful  eyes  will  turn 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       203 

in  tears  to  greet  the  unforgotten  banner  of  the 
Republic." 

Davis  believed  that  the  constitutional  pow 
ers  of  the  Federal  Government  were  sufficient 
for  the  repression  of  rebellion,  and  pro 
claimed  that  belief  in  a  speech  delivered  at 
Brooklyn  in  November,8  1861.  Webster  had 
been  dead  only  ten  years,  and  the  institutions 
whose  success  he  believed  would  continue  to 
distant  ages,  were  already  tottering.  Many  of 
the  people  of  the  North  were  even  in  search 
of  a  master,  and  "are  ready  to  lay  their  liberty 
a  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  victory."  When 
Webster  died,  "American  liberty  looked 
strong  and  was  boastful  of  its  strength;  when 
President  Buchanan  left  the  White  House, 
American  liberty  was  like  Herod,  eaten  of 
worms  beneath  his  royal  robes  and  ready  to 
give  up  the  ghost.  The  foundations  of  the 
constitutional  edifice  were  already  secretly 
sapped;  the  mortar  was  already  picked  from 
the  stones ;  and  when  the  judges  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  pronounced  the  Dred Scott  judg 
ment  the  very  Caryatids  of  the  Constitution 
were  seen  to  bend  beneath  the  unusual  pres 
sure  and  the  whole  edifice  seemed,  to  thought 
ful  eyes,  to  rush  to  its  ruin.  The  sap  went  on 
more  earnestly,  more  vigorously,"  until  "the 
enemies  of  the  republic  thought  their  day  was 
come;  they  rushed  openly  to  the  assault  of  the 


204       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

breach  they  had  been  so  long  and  so  secretly 
preparing.  Bold  men  thought  the  last  day  of 
the  republic  was  come.  Bad  men  withdrew  to 
seize  their  part  of  the  dismembered  heritage. 
Fervid  friends  gathered  round  the  bed  of  the 
dying  patient  and  talked  hopefully  of  peace 
ful  dissolutions,  and  when  rash  men  whis 
pered  with  bated  breath  of  coercive  remedies, 
they  were  put  far  off,  lest  the  shock  of  the  sug 
gestion  might  hasten  the  catastrophe.  "Then 
Sumter  was  attacked  and  the  nation"  rose 
from  its  bed  of  death  and  cast  off  its  prema 
ture  grave-clothes  and  challenged  its  right  to 
be  a  nation  of  history."  Men  cried  for  action 
and  were  summoned  thereto,  and  in  their  ex 
citement  and  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the 
new  conditions,  "they  supposed  that  laws  were 
meant  for  times  of  peace,  that  constitutions 
were  only  to  be  obeyed  in  courts  of  law,  that 
fury  might  not  minister  arms."  Such  prin 
ciples  "ruled  the  Government  in  great  meas 
ure,  with  the  people  leading  it  on  and  rejoic 
ing  over  every  arbitrary  act."  No  one  was 
more  interested  in  the  suppression  of  the  re 
bellion  than  Davis,  who  knew  that  we  "in 
Maryland  would  live  on  the  side  of  a  gulf, 
perpetually  tending  to  plunge  into  its  depths, 
if  the  rebellion  succeeded."  For  his  hearers 
it  was  "greatness,  strength  and  prosperity"  to 
preserve  the  Union ;  for  the  Marylanders, 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       205 

"life  and  liberty."  He  had  no  "tenderness 
for  the  parricidal  hands  that  have  lifted 
weapons  against  the  heart  of  the  nation;"  but, 
"in  their  grave,"  he  did  "not  wish  to  see  Amer 
ican  liberty  perish,"  nor  that  the  Government 
should  be  "driven  to  the  necessity  of  inaugu 
rating  revolution  for  the  purpose  of  suppress 
ing  insurrections."  He  objected  to  the  decla 
ration  of  martial  law,  to  the  suspension  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  by  the  President's  order, 
to  the  suspension  of  newspapers,  to  the  seiz 
ure  of  telegraph.  Davis  held  that  the  Consti 
tution  vested  in  "Congress  adequate  power  to 
suppress  the  rebellion;"  but  vested  in  no  one 
"arbitrary  or  unlimited  powers  for  that  or  any 
other  purpose."  If  the  Constitutional  powers 
of  the  Government  were  not  sufficient,  for  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion,  "the  Government 
of  George  Washington  has  failed."  We  are 
then  in  the  face  of  another  revolution,  and 
will  be  governed  by  the  "law  of  Julius  Caesar, 
the  law  of  the  master  over  the  slave."  Martial 
law  is  excluded  from  our  system,  for  the  Con 
stitution  does  "not  vest  authority  to  declare  it 
anywhere,  in  any  body,  under  any  circum 
stances."  He  went  into  an  elaborate  constitu 
tional  and  historical  argument  in  support  of 
his  position,  and  claimed  that,  to  allow  the 
President  to  proclaim  martial  law  in  accord 
ance  with  the  will  of  the  people,  would  be  to 


206       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

establish  the  "democratic  despotism"  of 
France,  not  "American  republicanism."  It 
would  "cause  us  to  tread  the  path  of  the  Ro 
man  republic  and  arrive  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  Institutes  of  Justinian,  that  the  will  of  the 
Emperor  had  the  force  of  law."  The  Con 
stitution  had  omitted  nothing  "necessary  to 
carry  the  republic  through  this  great  crisis." 
'The  guarantee  to  the  States  of  a  republican 
form  of  government  makes  it  "the  duty  of 
Congress  to  overthrow  the  usurping  govern 
ments  in  ten  rebellious  States,"  by  calling 
forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the 
Union  and  to  suppress  insurrection.  An  ordi 
nance  of  secession  "is  so  much  waste  paper." 
The  laws  of  the  Southern  States  are  the  acts  of 
a  mob,  "transcending  the  limits  of  their 
power  and  flying  in  the  face  of  the  supreme 
government  of  the  land."  Congress  must 
"authorize  the  President  to  use  the  military 
power  of  the  republic  to  compel  the  submis 
sion  of  its  enemies"  and  to  inflict  such  reason 
able  penalties  and  forfeitures  as  will  not  exas 
perate  and  indurate  the  hostile  population." 
The  President  is  merely  the  "executor  of  the 
laws.  He  has  authority  to  command  the 
army,  when  the  army  exists,  but  it  can  only 
exist  by  the  law  of  Congress."  In  the  whisky 
insurrection,  Washington  regretted  the  inade 
quacy  of  the  law,  but  took  no  steps  outside  of  it, 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       207 

and,  after  the  emergency  was  past,  he  secured 
its  amendment.  That  law  gave  Lincoln  au 
thority  to  suppress  the  rebellion.  Congress 
had  already  passed  a  law  providing  for  the 
confiscation  of  property  of  rebels,  used  to  pro 
mote  rebellion,  and  had  declared  a  blockade 
of  the  Southern  Coast.  Congress  had  also 
placed  a  magnificent  army  at  the  President's 
disposal.  In  a  few  days  Congress  will  meet 
again,  and  may  do  more.  The  army  must 
"break  down  a  combination  of  armed  force," 
and  against  those  in  arms  in  opposition  to  the 
Government,  the  bayonet  is  "the  process  of 
law."  The  "right  to  use  arms  ceases  with  the 
necessity  of  suppressing  combinations  too 
powerful  to  be  suppresed  by  the  ordinary  pro 
cesses  of  law."  When  the  army  is  assembled, 
it  may  rightfully  subject  the  whole  territory 
occupied  by  it  "to  the  burden  of  war,  at  the 
will  of  the  military  authority.  It  is  not  a  vio 
lation  of  a  private  right — it  is  the  assertion  of 
the  right  of  eminent  domain  over  the  national 
territory,  asserted  in  time  of  war  by  the  high 
est  political  authority,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  He  developed  this  thought 
at  great  length,  holding  that,  beyond  the  needs 
of  the  army,  private  property  was  as  "sacred 
in  civil  war  as  in  foreign  war,  or  in  peace;" 
but  that  Congress  may  legalize  confiscation, 
not  as  a  right  of  war,  but  as  a  "penalty  at- 


aoS       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tached  to  crime."  The  right  to  seize  persons 
in  arms,  or  those  who  are  aiding  and  abetting 
such  persons,  is  ainvolved  in  the  right  to  use 
military  force;"  yet  when  arrested,  these  per 
sons  may  lawfully  have  the  benefit  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  until  it  be  suspended  by  act 
of  Congress.  He  discussed  this  point  with 
thoroughness  and  quoted  precedents  to  justify 
his  position.  Yet  Taney  went  too  far  in  his 
decision  in  the  Merryman  case,  against  which 
Davis  cites  the  language  of  the  same  judge  in 
the  case  of  Luther  vs.  Borden,  to  which  lan 
guage  he  gives  high  praise.  The  matter  is 
thus  summed  up  by  Davis:  "A  military  arrest 
of  a  person  engaged  in  the  insurrection  is  not 
only  legal,  but  is  beyond  the  cognizance  of  the 
courts,"  which  "have  no  right  to  inquire  into 
the  subject  at  all."  If  the  writ  is  issued,  the 
military  officer  should  not  produce  the  pris 
oner,  but  "return  to  the  Court  the  simple  fact 
that  the  person  is  held  by  the  order  of  the 
President  for  being  engaged  in  the  insurrec 
tion,"  and  "if  the  courts  attempt  to  enforce 
the  production  of  the  prisoner,"  "it  is  the 
legal  duty  of  the  officer  to  resist  force,"  as  the 
arrest  was  "beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
court."  The  President,  Davis  continued,  "is 
to  make  war  for  suppression,  not  for  punish 
ment — that  belongs  to  the  courts.  But  within 
the  scope  of  warlike  operations  the  President, 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       209 
by  the  law  of  Congress,  is  paramount  to  the 


courts." 


Davis  apologized  for  his  long  constitutional 
discussion,  but  the  "foundation  stones  of  the 
republic"  were  "not  as  polished  as  the  col 
umns  and  cornices  which  glitter  in  the  sun," 
and  he  felt  that  it  would  take  "away  half  of 
our  republicanism  to  feel  that  we  put  down 
rebels  by  a  violation  of  the  law."  He  wished 
"the  war  to  be  conducted  as  a  war  ought  to  be 
conducted,  which  is  to  determine  the  life,  and 
not  only  the  life,  but  that  which  is  more,  the 
freedom  of  the  American  people,  the  reputa 
tion  of  republican  government,  its  respect,  its 
enduring  power,  and  its  influence  over  the  na 
tions  of  the  world."  He  would  "respect  and 
confide  in  the  wisdom,  resolutions  and  up 
rightness  of  President  Lincoln,  but  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  is  not  good  enough  for 
my  master.  I  will  trust  him  with  the 
administration  of  the  laws,  but  I  will 
not  trust  him  to  make  them,  nor  beyond 
them."  He  would  not  add  a  dictatorship  to 
the  President's  constitutional  powers.  Nations 
of  Europe  had  failed  in  "their  efforts  for  re 
publican  government  because  they  are  not 
habitated  to  the  restraints  of  law  self-im 
posed,"  but  "it  is  self-control  that  is  the  great 
ness  of  the  American  people.  It  is  obedience 
to  their  own  law  that  is  their  power.  It  is 

14 


210       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

because  they  have  declared  that  their  Consti 
tution  is  the  salus  populi;  it  is  because  they 
adhere  to  the  rule  that  the  written  law  is  the 
voice  of  the  people;  it  is  because  they  appeal 
from  the  hour  of  passion  to  the  day  of  calm 
reflection,  that  they  have  proved  themselves 
worthy  of  the  liberty  that  their  fathers  con 
quered  for  them." 

The  campaign  resulted  in  the  election  of  a 
Union  Governor  and  Legislature.  To  one  of 
the  young  members  of  the  House  of  Dele 
gates,  the  Hon.  John  V.  L.  Findlay,  Davis 
wrote  a  characteristic  letter  in  January,  1862 : 9 
"I  think  you  have  a  fine  opportunity  for  dis 
tinction  and  a  flattering  prospect  of  distinc 
tion,  if  you  use  the  opportunities  and  abilities 
you  have  with  diligence,  prudence  and,  above 
all,  with  absolute  fearlessness  at  any  or  all 
consequences.  Cowardice  of  mind  is  the 
curse  of  American  politics,  and  the  first  con 
dition  of  success  is  to  know  that  victory  can 
not  be  won  unless  at  risk  of  defeat,  and  he  who 
is  unwilling  to  be  shot  should  not  aspire  to 
military  glory." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Davis  was  urged 
for  the  United  States  Senatorship,  and  that, 
as  a  candidate  of  the  radical  element  of  the 
Union  party,  he  was  a  strong  competitor  of 
Reverdy  Johnson  in  the  caucus  during  March, 
i862.10  " 


CHAPTER  VIII—i86i-i863       211 

About  this  time  we  find  such  traces  of 
Davis's  activity  as  an  occasional  letter  about 
a  political  prisoner;11  or  an  appearance  in  a 
court-martial.12  He  kept  close  watch  upon 
the  proceedings  in  Congress,  as  is  shown  by 
the  letters  he  addressed  his  friend,  Hon.  Jus 
tin  S.  Morrill,  then  a  Representative  from 
Vermont,  on  June  6  and  15,  i86a.13  Carefully 
he  distinguished  between  a  bill  of  attainder,  a 
"law  performing  the  office  of  a  judgment," 
rightfully  forbidden  Congress,  and  the  pro 
posed  Confiscation  bill.  The  former  placed 
a  "person  just  where  a  conviction  and  judg 
ment  of  a  court  places  him,  nothing  remains 
but  execution."  Bills  like  the  latter  "name 
no  particular  persons;  therefore,  they  punish 
nobody.  They  declare  that  certain  acts  com 
mitted  after  their  passage  shall  be  punished 
by  confiscation,"  while  a  "bill  of  attainder  re 
lates  to  the  past."  These  proposed  bills  do 
not  make  the  forfeiture  dependent  on  a  pre 
vious  conviction  for  treason,  and  so  contra 
vene  no  constitutional  provision  concerning 
that  crime.  "It  would  be  gross  error  to  say 
that  one  can  be  deprived  of  liberty  or  life, 
otherwise  than  under  criminal  prosecution; 
for  then  the  President  has  murdered  many 
men  in  the  field  and  enslaved  many  men  in  the 
military  prisons.  For  men  in  arms,  a  bullet 
is  due  process  of  law;  seizure  by  military 


212       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

power  is  due  process  of  law;  they  are  not  con 
victions,  nor  trial,  nor  punishment  of  the  per 
sons;  they  as  assuredly  deprive  them  of  life  or 
of  liberty  as  a  conviction  and  a  sheriff,  and 
they  are  just  as  legal  as  conviction  and  hang 
ing."  Taxation,  also,  deprives  the  person  of 
his  property,  not  by  judicial  process,  but  by 
an  administrative  process,  yet  it  is  a  process  of 
law  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  Govern 
ment.  The  revenue  laws  of  the  United  States 
have  always  provided  for  forfeitures  without 
a  jury  for  illegal  acts,  "irrespective  of  the  con 
viction  or  prosecution"  of  the  guilty  person. 
The  navigation  laws,  the  laws  prohibiting  the 
sale  of  liquor  to  Indians,  the  statutes  for  sup 
pressing  the  slave  trade,  "abound  in  pointed 
illustrations,"  and  the  last-named  statutes  "are 
of  special  interest  in  relation  to  the  confisca 
tion  of  the  slaves  of  rebels."  "Slave  property 
is  the  pretext  of  the  rebellion  and  the  chief 
instrument  by  which  the  revolutionists  have 
coerced  submission  to  their  will.  Sound  pol 
icy  requires  that  a  weapon  of  such  power  be 
broken  or  wrested  from  the  hands  of  the  ene 
mies  of  the  Government."  The  "necessary 
form  of  confiscation  is  emancipation,"  but  the 
"release  of  the  Government's  title  in  the  slaves 
confiscated  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  a 
prohibition  against  holding  any  slave  in  the 
State."  The  care  with  which  the  punishment 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       213 

of  treason  was  hedged  about  by  the  f  ramers  of 
the  Constitution  shows  their  "desire  to  exclude 
political  persecution,"  but  does  not  deprive 
the  Government  of  the  power  to  punish  the 
"acts  which  amount  to  treason  under  other 
names  and  free  from  those  restrictions."  Thus 
"the  traitors  who  burned  the  Maryland  bridge 
and  shot  the  Massachusetts  men  on  the  i9th  of 
April  were  guilty  of  treason,  but  they  were 
also  guilty  of  resisting  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  a  riot,  and  of  obstructing  mail 
routes,  and  for  any  of  these  crimes  "may  be 
punished,  without  the  limitations  placed  on 


treason." 


The  second  letter  added  to  the  illustrations 
of  the  power  to  confiscate  slaves  by  emancipa 
tion,  the  laws  of  the  United  States  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  which  "prohibited  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  for  sale  or  residence,  de 
clared  the  slave  imported  free,  and  punished 
the  importer  by  fine."  These  laws  were 
adopted  from  the  laws  of  Maryland  and  Vir 
ginia.  Davis  himself  had  "in  more  than  one 
instance  successfully  asserted  that  claim"  of 
freedom  "before  the  courts  of  the  District  and 
of  Virginia."  The  Compromise  Acts  of  1850 
embody  the  same  principle.  "The  process  for 
enforcing  the  freedom  of  the  slave  was  by  suit 
in  the  name  of  the  negro  against  the  owner  for 
freedom,  in  the  form  of  an  ordinary  action  for 


2i4       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

trespass,  and  the  title  to  freedom  was  vested 
by  operation  of  law,  immediately  on  the  con 
summation  of  the  act  of  forfeiture,  and  the 
suit  was  merely  the  judicial  form  of  authenti 
cating  the  title  the  law  had  vested." 

In  the  political  campaign  of  1862  Davis 
spoke  on  October  30  at  Newark,  New  Jersey,14 
especially  attacking  the  peace  party.  He  told 
his  hearers  that  the  Confederates  in  arms  "will 
defy  you ;  disarmed,  they  will  beg  for  terms. 
But  there  are  persons  who  are  opposed  to  wag 
ing  a  war  of  subjugation."  To  such  Davis  re 
plied  that  if  the  South  "shall  persistently  re 
fuse  to  accept  the  benefits  of  free  government 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
then  this  question  is  presented  to  us.  If  men 
perversely  refuse  to  govern  themselves  under 
our  laws,  whether  we  shall,  therefore,  sacrifice 
our  nation  and  our  independence,  permit  an 
archy  because  of  their  refusal,  or  govern  them 
by  law?"  To  this  trenchant  query  he  an 
swered  that  "I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying, 
just  what  meaning  you  place  on  subjection, 
that  their  subjection  is  my  freedom." 

Threats  had  been  made  that  the  army  would 
rebel  if  McClellan  were  removed  from  com 
mand,  and  the  Democrats  said  "that  they  alone 
can  carry  on  a  successful  war."  In  reply, 
Davis  pointed  to  Harrison  in  the  Indian  war 
fare,  to  Scott  in  the  War  of  1812  and  the  Mex- 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       215 

lean  War,  and  to  Taylor  in  the  latter  war. 
The  failure  of  the  troops  was  due  to  Demo 
cratic  leadership;  "slowness  is  not  the  way  to 
prostrate  this  rebellion."  For  that  end  the 
audacity  of  Taylor  is  needed.  The  Demo 
crats  cried  out  against  the  suspension  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  which  had  been  put 
into  effect  in  Baltimore  by  Generals  John  A. 
Dix  and  Wool,15  both  Democrats;  while  Lin 
coln,  in  suspending  the  writ,  merely  followed 
in  the  footsteps  of  two  Democratic  leaders, 
namely,  Jefferson  in  Gen.  James  Wilkinson's 
case,  and  Jackson  at  New  Orleans.  After  all, 
"all  such  hue  and  cry  was  a  sham."  The 
Democrats  "mean  to  stop  the  war."  They  re 
fer  to  acts  "illegal  and  unnecessary  and  here 
after  to  be  rebuked,  but  which  can  not  now  be 
rebuked  without  endangering  the  public  cause 
and  the  safety  of  all." 

They  complain  of  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  do  not  pro 
pose  to  re-establish  it.  They  complain  of  the 
emancipation  proclamation  as  tending  "to  dis 
turb  and  overthrow  all  the  foundations  of  so 
ciety  in  the  Southern  States."  Davis  replied 
that  we  are  not  bound  "to  prevent  any  such 
disaster,  which  they,  the  rebels,  alone  have 
rendered  possible."  If  the  extreme  charges 
of  the  Democrats  against  that  proclamation 
are  true,  "it  is  an  unconstitutional  act  that 


216       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

hurts  no  loyal  State,"  and  "its  illegality  does 
not  touch  any  man  in  any  State  not  now  in  re 
bellion."  "If  the  proclamation  is  to  be  effect 
ual,"  however,  "it  must  have  the  force  of  law," 
and  Congress,  at  its  coming  session,"  should 
"recommend  the  adoption  of  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  declaring  that  no  State 
shall  tolerate  slavery  within  its  borders,  extin 
guishing  slavery  throughout  the  United  States, 
with  a  provision  for  compensating  the  owners 
in  loyal  States."  On  the  ratification  of  such 
an  amendment  "you  will  have  gone  to  the 
root  and  core  of  the  matter." 

Davis  also  favored  a  confiscation  bill  that 
should  "touch  the  lands  of  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion,  not  for  life,  but  in  the  fee  simple," 
and  a  distribution  of  those  lands  to  the  "ne 
groes  who  shoulder  the  musket."  Coloniza 
tion  in  Liberia  "is  an  impossibility,  and,  if  it 
v/ere  practicable,  it  would  not  be  desirable. 
The  lands  in  the  Southern  States  must  be  cul 
tivated,  and  the  negroes  will  remain  there  and 
will  have  to  cultivate  them." 

In  his  peroration  he  urged  the  people  to  go 
on,  "with  that  indomitable  resolution  never  to 
submit,  or  to  be  content  with  anything  less 
than  the  subjugation  of  rebellion,  the  defeat  of 
rebels,  and  the  victorious  maintenance  of  the 
whole  republic." 

In  February,   1863,  Davis  and  his  friends 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       217 

began  an  active  political  movement  in  favor  of 
emancipation  in  Maryland.  It  was  necessary 
to  elect  a  Legislature  in  the  fall  of  that  year 
which  should  be  favorable  to  submitting  to 
the  people  of  the  State  the  question  of  calling 
a  constitutional  convention,  which  convention, 
wrhen  called,  should  submit  to  the  people  a  re 
vised  Constitution,  abolishing  slavery.  In  the 
midst  of  the  political  campaign  came  the  bat 
tle  of  Gettysburg.  On  the  morning  of  July  5 
Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  the  war  correspond 
ent,  entered  the  Eutaw  House,  in  Baltimore, 
and  told  Elihu  B.  Washburne  and  Davis  that: 
"We  have  won  the  greatest  battle  of  the  war. 
I  have  been  all  over  the  battlefield,  and  the 
rebels  are  in  retreat."  In  his  graphic  phrase: 
"The  next  moment  Washburne  and  Davis 
were  hugging  each  other,"  in  the  relief  from 
the  great  strain.16  J.  A.  J.  Creswell  was 
Davis's  chief  lieutenant  in  the  movement,  and 
Davis  made  a  vigorous  campaign  throughout 
the  Eastern  Shore,  where  Creswell  was  the 
successful  Union  candidate  for  Congress.  As 
Davis  had  no  opposition  to  his  own  Congres 
sional  election  in  the  Baltimore  district,  he 
spoke  for  Creswell  and  emancipation  at  Elk- 
ton  on  October  6,  at  Towson  on  the  i  $th,  at 
Salisbury  on  the  24th,  at  Snow  Hill  on  the 
27th,  and  at  Baltimore  on  the  28th.  The 
election  in  November  resulted  in  the  choice  of 


218       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

a  Legislature  pledged  to  call  a  Constitutional 
Convention. 

In  the  important  campaign  of  1863  Davis 
did  not  limit  his  efforts  to  Maryland,  but  also 
spoke  at  Philadelphia  on  September  24."  In 
his  judgment,  the  election  of  a  Democratic 
Conservative  President  would  end  the  war 
and  also  the  Union  and  the  movement  for  ne 
gro  freedom,  "the  great  result,  though  not  the 
original  object  of  the  war.  If  men  favor  the 
continuance  of  the  conduct  of  national  affairs 
in  the  hands  of  the  Republicans,  the  continu 
ance  of  the  war  until  every  rebellious  weapon 
sinks  in  submission  to  the  national  authority," 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  they  must  vote 
for  the  Republican  candidates  in  Pennsyl 
vania.  The  Democrats  declared  that  they 
"alone  can  restore  the  Union,"  that  it  "can 
only  be  restored  by  peace  and  conciliation." 
Davis  asked  the  piercing  question:  "They 
were  in  power  when  the  rebellion  broke  out. 
Why  did  not  they  arrest  it?"  They  could  have 
prevented  the  election  of  Lincoln.  "Why  did 
they  not  subordinate  their  internal  party  dif 
ferences  to  the  patriotic  purpose  of  averting 
an  otherwise  inevitable  wrar?  They  say  that 
they  alone  can  restore  the  Union,  and  by 
peace.  Then,  why  did  they  break  it  up? 
They  are  very  fond  of  asking  who  is  respon 
sible  for  the  war,  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       219 

responding,  the  Democratic  party,  that  ruled 
the  country  for  thirty  years."  The  war  Demo 
crats  heartily  support  Lincoln,  and  "they  who 
now  arrogate  to  themselves  the  reputation  and 
the  name  of  the  Democratic  party  are  the 
mere  refuse  that  remained  behind  when  the 
patriotic  elements  withdrew  for  the  defense  of 
the  nation."  When  it  included  the  War  Dem 
ocrats,  that  party  coud  "not  prevent  the  war. 
Who  will  believe  that  this  wretched  remnant 
can  stop  the  war?  Why  did  the  South  rebel? 
Because  they  had  lost  the  majority  of  the 
North."  The  rebellion  is  merely  the  "Demo 
cratic  party  in  arms  in  the  South  and  in  sym 
pathy  in  the  North.  What  Democrat  does 
not  sympathize  with  his  Southern  brethren?" 
The  Democrats  opposed  the  war  "in  its  begin 
ning;  they  have  maligned  it  to  the  present 
day;  they  have  embarrassed  its  progress;  they 
have  villified  those  that  conduct  it;  they  have 
struggled  against  every  measure  essential  to 
its  conduct.  Place  them  in  power,  would  they 
not  effectuate  their  own  purpose  and  let  it 
drop?  Of  course,  peace  is  their  policy."  "In 
each  Legislature  which  they  have  elected,  the 
cloven  foot  has  appeared.  No  great  leading 
man,  calling  himself  a  Democrat  and  not  now 
supporting  the  Administration,  vows  himself 
in  favor  of  prosecuting  the  war  to  the  bitter 
end,  till  the  banners  of  rebellion  trail  in  the 


220       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

dust."  The  Confederates  are  unwilling  to 
give  up  the  struggle.  An  armistice  would  be 
given  only  "to  argue  with  maniacs,  to  debate 
on  the  field  of  battle,  or  to  realize  the  darling 
idea  of  the  Democratic  disunionists,  to  palsy 
the  arm  of  the  United  States,  to  arrest  the  im 
petus  of  its  onward  advance,  to  give  the  people 
in  rebellion  time  to  breathe,  the  men  stricken 
to  the  knee,  time  to  gain  their  feet;  the  men 
whose  resources  are  exhausted,  an  opportunity 
to  replace  them,  to  break  up  the  blockade,  to 
open  their  ports  to  foreign  commerce,  to  give 
them  the  recognition  that  could  never  be  with 
drawn,  not  merely  of  belligerents,  but  of  par 
ties  holding  a  position  competent  to  deal  on 
equal  terms  with  the  United  States."  The 
Democrats  were  really,  "in  plain  English,  op 
posed  to  the  farther  conduct  of  the  war,"  and 
had  "attempted  everywhere  to  elect  disloyal 
Governors,  pledged  to  embarrass  the  United 
States  in  the  enforcement  of  the  laws." 

Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  have  a  "com 
mon  interest  in  this  great  struggle,"  for  the 
Mason  and  Dixon  Line,  "that  so  long  has  been 
of  ill  omen,  was  abolished  by  the  day  of  Get 
tysburg"  and  Maryland  is  about  to  give  up 
slavery,  the  "only  mark  of  disunion  between 
the  States."  The  common  interest  of  both 
States  lies  "in  filling  up  the  depleted  ranks  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Whether  the  Gov- 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       221 

ernment  see  it  or  not,  from  the  beginning  of 
the  war  to  this  day,  there  has  been  but  one  de 
cisive  point  upon  which  one  decisive  battle 
could  end  the  war,  and  that  has  been  Virginia. 
It  has  never  been  a  question  of  marching  to 
Richmond;  it  has  been  a  question  of  dispers 
ing  and  destroying  the  army  of  General  Lee, 
and  that  has  never  been  difficult  to  find. 
What  the  Government  has  needed  is  a  single 
ness  of  purpose,  bending  its  unbroken  ener 
gies  to  the  annihilation  of  that  army,  and  with 
it  would  crumble  the  Southern  republic.  Vic 
tories  on  other  points  are  victories  of  detail; 
victory  on  that  point  is  decisive,  final  and 
overwhelming.  Peace  will  follow  the  de 
struction  of  that  army;  the  war  will  endure 
until  that  army  is  destroyed."  "The  war  drags 
its  length  along  now,  because  a  Presidential 
election  is  only  a  year  off,  and  the  rebels  of  the 
South  count  on  having  their  friends  in  office." 
Davis  felt  convinced  that  "the  way  to  peace 
is  over  the  battlefield,  and  there  is  no  other 
path."  There  are  four  millions  of  slaves  in 
the  South,  and  they  should  be  armed  against 
the  "oligarchy  of  slaveholders."  The  emanci 
pation  proclamation  "confers  no  title;  it  can 
only  be  made  a  title  by  arms."  Washington, 
Jackson,  Perry,  Barney  at  Bladensburg,  Banks 
at  Port  Hudson,  Gilmore  at  Fort  Wagner, 
bore  testimony  to  the  negro's  usefulness  as  a 


222       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

soldier.  "Men  are  men,  in  spite  of  their  skin 
and  deeper  than  their  skin."  Davis  believed 
that  no  court  of  law  would  hold  the  emancipa 
tion  proclamation  "a  valid  title  to  freedom," 
and  that  it  must  be  followed  by  "a  law  of  Con 
gress  and  arms."  The  idea  of  colonization  of 
negroes  must  be  discarded.  "Make  up  your 
minds,  gentlemen,  that  if  they  are  to  be  sol 
diers,  they  are  to  be  freemen,  with  the  rights 
of  free  laborers,  protected  by  the  laws,  recog 
nized  by  the  United  States  in  their  position, 
guaranteed  the  remedies  of  the  courts  of  the 
United  States  and  armed  and  drilled  to  make 
their  rights  effectual."  This  can  not  be  done 
on  the  restoration  theory  of  the  Democrats  as 
to  the  Southern  States.  The  "Union  as  it 
was"  would  restore  West  Virginia  to  Virginia 
and  surrender  the  Union  men  in  Kentucky, 
Tennessee  and  Missouri  to  the  rebels.  The 
American  people  are  not  "ready  for  such  a 
restoration  as  that."  "They  delude  the  peo 
ple  with  vain  words  when  they  speak  of  the 
Union  as  it  was.  Call  the  dead  to  life;  clothe 
his  bones  with  his  dissolved  flesh;  restore  the 
soul  to  the  soulless  eyes  of  the  thousands  who 
have  fallen  martyrs  upon  the  battlefield,  and 
then  you  can  restore  the  Union  as  it  was.  The 
attempt  is  to  begin  a  new  civil  war."  '  Davis 
went  on  to  discuss  the  other  part  of  the  Demo 
cratic  war-cry:  "I  am  for  the  Constitution  as 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1861       223 

it  is,  and  that  has  altered  the  Union  as  it  was, 
and  it  will  stay  altered  until  eternity.  And 
when  I  speak  of  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  I 
mean  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  George 
Washington,  Alexander  Hamilton  and  James 
Madison — adequate  for  every  contingency  of 
national  life,  speaking  so  plainly  that  those 
who  run  may  read  and  only  the  perversely 
blind  can  misinterpret.  Aye,  the  Constitu 
tion  as  it  is,  which  says  that  Congress  may  call 
forth  the  militia  and  use  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  to  suppress  insurrection  and, 
therefore,  the  war  is  constitutional,  according 
to  the  letter  of  the  Constitution  as  it  is.  That 
Constitution  says  that  Congress  shall  guaran 
tee  to  every  State  a  republican  form  of  gov 
ernment,  and  it  is  under  the  Constitution  as 
it  is  that  the  armies  now  march  to  remove  op 
pression  and  restore  republican  liberty.  And 
it  is  the  Constitution  as  it  is  which  declares 
that  Congress  shall  have  a  right  to  pass  all 
laws  necessary  and  proper  to  carry  into  execu 
tion  all  the  powers  vested  in  it  or  any  other 
department  of  the  Government,  and,  there 
fore,  whatever  Congress  may  think,  in  its 
judgment,  is  necessary  to  restore  and  guaran 
tee  republican  forms  of  government  in  the 
rebel  States,  that  law,  according  to  the  Con 
stitution  as  it  is,  Congress  may  pass."  One  can 
hardly  state  the  Congressional  plan  of  recon- 


224       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

struction  in  clearer  form,  and  there  is  no  won 
der  that  one  holding  such  views  came  into 
conflict  with  Lincoln,  ere  many  months  had 
passed.  Lincoln's  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  was,  at  best,  of  doubtful  consti 
tutionality,  but  Congress  had  now  suspended 
the  writ  and  placed  the  "matter  on  the  just 
basis  of  law.  Rational  men  will  yield  obedi 
ence  to  it.  None  but  traitorous  conservatives 
will  continue  to  howl  against  it.  Every  loyal 
man  knows  the  President  will  not  use  it  for 
oppression." 

Congress  ought  to  have  taken  up  the  re 
organization  of  the  Southern  State  govern 
ments  at  the  last  session;  for,  the  sooner  the 
"grounds  upon  which  we  act  are  ascertained 
the  better  for  all  parties."  We  must  not 
"speak  of  the  Southern  men  in  arms  as  alien 
enemies,"  for  to  do  so  is  to  admit  that  "their 
secession  was  effectual,  to  give  them  the  right 
of  independence  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  I 
say  they  are  traitors  and  not  enemies,  citizens 
under  the  law,  against  which  they  are  illegally 
waging  war,  not  foreigners  waging  a  war 
upon  equal  terms  with  men  who  are  foreign 
ers  to  them.  They  war  with  the  rope  around 
their  necks."  When  the  rebellion  shall  be 
suppressed,  the  Southerners  will  not  be  a  "con 
quered  people,"  nor  are  the  States,  "by  rebel 
lion,  extinguished"  so  as  to  become  Territo- 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       225 

ries."  The  States  are  "continuing,  perpetual 
elements  of  our  Union,  and  their  citizens  "are 
always  beneath  the  Constitution."  But  Davis 
held  that  there  was  a  "marked  discrimination 
between  the  individual  rights  of  the  citizens — 
the  existence  of  the  State  as  a  body  politic  and 
its  capacity,  by  reason  of  its  want  of  organiza 
tion,  to  exert  its  political  powers.  If  a  man  in 
South  Carolina  comes  to  Philadelphia,  no 
lawyer  can  plead  alien  enemy  to  his  suit. 
When  the  opposition  is  dispersed,  then  the 
reign  of  the  courts  is  restored  and  the  day  of 
punishment  may  come.  But,  with  reference 
to  their  political  franchises,  the  wisdom  of  our 
forefathers  has  placed  them  a  step  farther  off. 
There  can  be  no  electors  of  President  from 
any  State,  unless  there  be  a  government  or 
ganized  in  it,  recognized  by  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  whose  officers  have 
sworn  obedience  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  The  present  Southern  State 
officers  had  not  carried  "their  territory  from 
beneath  the  laws  of  the  United  States,"  but 
had  "torn  down"  "their  own  State  govern 
ments  and  instituted  others."  "They  are  a 
band  of  traitors,  usurping  rights  over  citizens 
of  the  United  States.  The  armies  of  the 
United  States  move  to  strike  that  power  from 
their  hands  and  restore  it  to  loyal  men,  and -in 
doing  that  the  only  arbiter  of  what  govern- 

15 


226       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ment  shall  be  recognized,  the  only  arbiter  of 
who  shall  be  treated  as  Governor,  or  a  legis 
lator,  or  a  judge  of  a  rebel  State,  is  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled.  Till  they  shall 
recognize  another  government,  there  is  no 
government."  In  the  absence  of  a  State  gov 
ernment,  there  must  either  be  anarchy  or  a 
legislative  and  executive  power  somewhere. 
"Those  that  have  abdicated  can  no  longer  be 
the  government  of  the  State.  The  right  and 
duty  to  guarantee  a  republican  government  is 
vested  in  Congress.  Congress  is,  therefore, 
charged  to  take  every  measure  that  is  neces 
sary  to  restore  republican  government.  Pend 
ing  the  interregnum,  Congress  is  the  only  leg 
islative  power  for  that  State,  the  President  is 
the  only  executive  power  for  the  State."  In 
Virginia  the  administration  had  already  ap 
plied  these  principles  to  the  circumstances. 
The  emancipation  proclamation  would  not 
stand  against  the  wishes  of  the  seceding  States, 
w7hen  once  they  should  be  reorganized,  nor 
did  Davis  believe  that  the  "Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  will  recognize  it  as  law," 
but  "it  can  be  helped  by  an  Act  of  Congress 
in  the  execution  of  its  guarantee  of  republican 
government,  if  it  consider  that  the  continu 
ance  of  these  men  in  slavery  and  the  power  of 
the  masters  over  them  is  incompatible  with  a 
permanent  consolidation  of  republican  institu- 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       227 

tions  in  the  States.  That  is  a  political  and  not 
a  judicial  question,"  and  on  such  questions 
the  "courts  of  the  United  States  will  follow 
the  judgment  of  Congress  and  the  President." 
"It  is  frivolous,"  Davis  continued,  "to  say  that 
we  can  arm  a  million  of  men  to  prostrate  half 
a  million  in  the  dust,  taking  away  precious 
life  to  restore  republican  government;  but  we 
cannot  restore  freedom  to  slaves  in  the  same 
cause.  Life  is  protected  against  illegal  ag 
gression  in  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  prop 
erty.  Life  is  not  less  sacred  than  slavery. 
Can  we  destroy  life  to  repel  from  power  those 
who  have  usurped  a  power  to  create  unrepub- 
lican  forms  of  government  in  the  rebel  States, 
and  are  we  to  be  told  that  the  power  of  Con 
gress  is  limited  with  reference  to  that  species 
of  property — that  it  must  stand  a  perpetual 
obstacle  to  free  government?"  That  is  to 
adopt  the  strict  construction  of  the  "rebellious 
faction,  that  by  coalition  with  Northern 
Democrats,  has  governed  the  country  to  its 
ruin  for  30  years.  They  have  always  been  in 
favor  of  tying  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  hand  and  foot,  because  they  saw  that  it 
had  strong  feet  to  trample  down  rebellion  and 
long  arms  to  reach  it."  The  "barriers  thrown 
up  to  protect  the  institutions  of  slavery,"  in 
Davis's  eyes,  were  "the  deliberately  prepared 
bulwarks  for  a  premeditated  rebellion." 


228       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

"When  we  are  done  with  the  rebellion,  there 
will  be  no  governments,  even  in  form,  to  rec 
ognize  in  the  slave  States.  Their  people  will 
"form  a  State  without  a  political  organiza 
tion."  Such  organization  they  "can  only  re 
ceive  under  the  auspices  of  Congress  and  in 
accordance  with  the  forms  and  by  the  laws 
that  it,  and  it  alone,  shall  see  fit  to  prescribe." 
Our  forefathers  wisely  foresaw  that  a  great 
rebellion  might  arise,  "and,  therefore,  they 
created  the  power  to  suppress  insurrection  and 
imposed  the  duty  on  Congress  to  guarantee 
republican  government."  Here  we  have  no 
struggle  between  poor  and  rich,  forming  a 
revolution  difficult  to  deal  with,  but  a  foun 
dation  of  revolt  which  is  a  "social  institution 
—the  right  by  law,  contrary  to  the  law  of  na 
ture,  for  one  man  to  hold  another  in  servitude. 
You  cut  up  the  roots  of  the  rebellion  by  strik 
ing  the  shackles  from  the  slave."  The  slaves 
had  properly  been  called  out  as  soldiers  and  no 
ill  results  had  followed.  The  Border  States 
were  emancipating  slaves.  "In  Maryland, 
that  surrounds  your  capital  and  more  than 
once  had  felt  the  tramp  of  the  invaders — such 
is  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  her  people  that 
her  Governor  has  been  compelled  to  hasten 
up  his  lagging  opinions  and  proclaim  himself 
in  favor  of  emancipation,  and  a  convention 
next  year  to  effect  it;  and  the  only  question  is 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       229 

whether  the  enlistment  of  negroes  will  leave 
any  to  emancipate?"  The  mass  of  freedmen 
had  shown  wonderful  quiet  and  there  ha  • 
been  no  servile  insurrections.  We  must  not 
call  negroes  into  the  field  and  abandon  them 
afterwards  to  slavery.  An  Act  of  Congress 
freeing  the  negroes  in  the  revolted  States,  will 
place  "four  millions  of  people  in  the  rebel 
States,  whose  liberty  depends  upon  the  per 
petuity  of  the  Union,  and  for  the  first  time 
you  will  have  a  guarantee  such  as  you  never 
had  before."  Some  raise  the  cry  of  the  dan 
ger  of  negro  equality.  "In  the  first  place,  if 
anybody  is  afraid  of  negro  equality,  he  is  not 
far  from  it  already;  in  the  next  place,  if  God 
has  made  him  equal,  and  only  incidental  cir 
cumstances  have  made  him  unequal,  you  can 
not  help  it;  and  if  He  has  made  him  unequal 
you  cannot  help  it;  and  if  He  has  made  him 
unequal,  by  the  laws  of  nature  and  independ 
ently  of  the  accidental  circumstances,  then  no 
amount  of  demagogism,  no  amount  of  aboli 
tion  enthusiasm,  can  make  one  hair  black  or 
white  or  add  an  inch  to  his  stature,  intellectual 
or  moral."  You  cannot  expel  the  negroes, 
for  the  ships,  the  land  to  receive  them,  the 
money  to  remove  them,  the  persons  to  supply 
their  places  in  the  South,  all  are  lacking. 
There  is  little  danger  of  their  removing  to  the 
North.  In  Maryland  "we  find  that  the  slaves 


23o       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

are  lazier  than  the  free  negroes."  "No  rebel 
State  will  vote  to  emancipate  their  slaves,"  but 
they  will  gladly  keep  the  negroes  as  f  reedmen, 
if  the  choice  lies  between  that  and  losing  them 
altogether.  If  the  rebels  be  allowed  to  retain 
power,  the  Union  may  be  restored,  but  "it 
will  be  at  the  loss  of  all  the  fruits  of  the  war; 
there  will  be  no  permanent  peace."  He  urged 
that  the  Union  armies,  which  already  "gird 
all  the  rebellion,  press  forward  only  a  little 
more,  and  with  one  combined  and  energetic 
effort  end  the  war  in  another  year."  "It  is 
tenacity,  it  is  endurance,  it  is  patience,  it  is 
the  resolution  never  to  stop  fighting  until  your 
enemy  yields,  that  constitute  the  great  quali 
ties  of  nations  born  to  rule.  We  are  on  trial 
before  the  nations  of  the  world.  Every  despot 
in  Europe  curled  his  lips  when  the  rebellion 
broke  out,  at  the  feeble,  wretched,  vacillating, 
dilapidated  government  that  undertook  to  re 
store  its  authority  over  this  immense  and  mag 
nificent  region."  Napoleon  III  sent  troops  to 
Mexico  when  our  fortunes  were  at  low  ebb, 
and  his  actions,  as  well  as  those  of  England  in 
permitting  "the  sailing  of  the  Alabama  and 
the  Florida,"  and  in  many  other  ways,  "fester 
and  rankle  till  the  day  of  account."  Davis 
even  incited  his  hearers  to  a  future  war  with 
France  and  England,  and  closed  his  speech 
with  an  expression  of  a  hope  that  Admiral 


CHAPTER  VIII—i86i-i863       231 

Dupont  might  take  London.  Rodomontade 
one  may  say,  yet  it  was  the  earnest  thought  of 
many  sincere  persons  at  that  time,  which 
thought,  had  Napoleon  not  retired  from  Mex 
ico  and  England  agreed  to  arbitrate  the  Ala 
bama  claims,  might  well  have  led  to  a  terrible 
struggle. 

In  New  York  City,  Davis  addressed  a  large 
meeting  in  the  Cooper  Union18  on  October  9. 
In  urging  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
he  especially  opposed  the  so-called  "Peace 
party"  and  maintained  that  there  was  no  law 
ful  government  in  the  rebellious  States  which 
the  Federal  authorities  could  recognize. 
When  the  armed  opposition  should  be  swept 
away,  Congress  must  reorganize  those  States 
and  establish  a  republican  form  of  govern 
ment  there.  He  prophesied  the  success  of  the 
movement  for  emancipation  in  Maryland,  fa 
vored  the  enlistment  of  negro  troops,  and  re 
minded  his  hearers  that  "they  served  in  the 
ranks  of  George  Washington  and  Andrew 
Jackson."  Although  he  had  "never  sympa 
thized  with  the  radical  Abolitionists"  and 
"thought  them  one  hair's  breadth  this  side  of 
craziness,"  yet  in  this  emergency,  when  the 
"nation  is  on  the  point  of  triumph"  and  "when 
the  only  thing  that  fires  the  Southern  heart  is 
the  Opposition"  in  the  North,  he  felt  that  the 
man  who  revives  old  prejudices,  or  "who  now 


232       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

utters  a  word  for  the  purpose  of  awakening 
prejudice  against  any  man  on  the  side  of  the 
Government,  is  either  a  traitor  at  heart,  or  so 
low  in  intelligence  that  he  does  not  know  the 
consequences  of  his  acts." 

Three  days  later  a  dinner  was  given  at  the 
Astor  House  by  prominent  gentlemen  of  New 
York  City  in  honor  of  the  Russian  Minister 
and  of  the  Russian  Admiral  Lisovski,  com 
manding  a  fleet  then  in  New  York  harbor.19 
Russia  had  been  the  only  European  power  ef 
fectively  to  show  a  friendly  disposition  to 
wards  the  United  States,  and  advantage  was 
eagerly  taken  of  the  visit  of  the  Russian  fleet 
to  show  an  appreciation  of  that  friendliness. 
Davis  was  requested  to  respond  to  the  toast, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  in  re 
plying  thereto  bore  testimony,  with  pleasure 
and  heartiness,  to  the  ''earnest  uprightness  of 
purpose  and  far-seeing  sagacity  with  which, 
in  matters  more  gravely  complex  and  weighty 
than  this  nation  since  the  Revolution,  had  ever 
been  called  upon  to  deal  with,"  Lincoln  "has 
discharged  his  high  duty."  The  toast  had 
stated  that  the  nation  was  "solving  the  prob 
lem  of  self-government  and  universal  free 
dom,"  but  Davis  asserted  that  that  problem 
had  been  solved  and  the  day  of  experiment 
had  already  passed.  He  referred  to  the  hos 
tility  of  England  and  of  France.  In  his  clos- 


CHAPTER  VIII— 1861-1863       233 

ing  paragraph  he  stated  that  "history  will 
show  no  example  of  an  equal  struggle"  to  the 
Civil  War,  "within  the  limits  of  any  one  na 
tion,  met  with  equal  power,  sustained  with 
equal  endurance,  crowned  with  equal  success, 
promising  equal  triumph,  with  that  in  which 
we  are  engaged."  After  these  bold  words  the 
speech  concluded  with  a  graceful  reference 
to  the  fact  that  Russian  serfdom  "has  vanished 
like  the  morning  clouds"  before  the  recent 
imperial  ukase.  It  was  a  curious  irony  of 
events  which  gave  the  author  of  the  Warfare 
of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  and  of  the  Davis- 
Wade  Manifesto,  the  duty  of  making  such  a 
speech. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VIII. 

1.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXV. 

2.  Creswell,  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXVI. 

3.  On    the    disunionist    position    of    May,    see    Congressional 
Globe    of  July    18    and   20,    1861,    and    War   of   Rebellion,    Off. 
Recs.,  2nd  Series,  vol.  2,  p.  780. 

4.  3  Scharf,  Md.,  433. 

5.  At  this  meeting  Job  Smith  presided. 

6.  Moore's  Rebellion  Record,  vol.  3,  p.  58,  and  Supp.,  vol. 
170. 

7.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  224. 

8.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  258. 

9.  Quoted   by   Capt.    H.   P.    Goddard    in   Baltimore   Sunday 
Herald  of  March  8,  1903. 

10.  (Steiner's  Reverdy  Johnson,  57.)      Judge  George  M.  Rus- 
sum  told  Capt.  H.  P.  Goddard   (vide  Baltimore  Sunday  Herald 
of  March  8,   1903)    that  he  went  to  Annapolis  to  try  to  secure 
Davis's  election,   and  was  told  that   a   fund  of  $25,00x3  would 


234       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ensure  success.  He  told  Davis  this,  and  the  latter  indignantly 
replied  that  he  would  not  give  one  cent. 

ii.  He  asks  for  release  of  W.  Wilkins  Glenn,  proprietor 
of  the  Exchange  newspaper,  as  did  Montgomery  Blair  and 
Reverdy  Johnson.  War  of  Rebellion,  Off.  Recs.,  2nd  Series,  vol. 
2,  p.  780,  September  28,  1861,  and  asks  that  George  Dent's  case 
be  examined,  expressing  no  wish  for  his  discharge,  op.  cit.  p. 
872,  December,  1861. 

12  E.  g.  with  Milton  Whitney,  as  counsel  for  Col.  James 
Badger,  of  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  who  was  tried  at 
Annapolis  in  June,  1863,  for  fraud  in  buying  coal  for  army. 

13.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  292. 

14.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  302. 

15.  Gen.  John  Ellis  Wool  (1784-1869). 

1 6.  Coffin's  Lincoln,  379. 

17.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  307. 

1 8.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  341. 

19.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  338. 


CHAPTER  IX— 1 863- 1 86?         235 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  THIRTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS 

AND  THE  STRUGGLE  WITH 

LINCOLN   (1863-65). 

In  the  Spring  of  1863  Davis  decided  again 
to  be  a  candidate  for  election  to  Congress,  and, 
fearing  that  Lincoln  "might  be  inclined  to  fa 
vor  unduly  the  Conservative  candidate,1  sought 
an  interview  with  the  President.  As  a  result 
of  this  interview,  Lincoln  wrote  Davis  a  letter 
on  March  18,  stating  that  "there  will  be  in  the 
new  House  of  Representatives,  as  there  were 
in  the  old,  some  members  openly  opposing  the 
war,  some  supporting  it  unconditionally,  and 
some  supporting  it  with  huts  and  ifs  and  ands. 
They  will  divide  on  the  organization  of  the 
House — on  the  election  of  a  Speaker.  As  you 
ask  my  opinion,  I  give  it — that  the  supporters 
of  the  war  should  send  no  man  to  Congress 
who  will  not  pledge  himself  to  go  into  caucus 
with  the  unconditional  supporters  of  the  war 
and  to  abide  the  action  of  such  caucus  and 
vote  for  the  person  therein  nominated  for 
Speaker.  Let  the  friends  of  Government  first 
save  the  Government,  and  then  administer  it 
to  their  liking."  Lincoln's  lukewarm  and 
somewhat  Delphic  utterance  2  was  courteously 
received  by  Davis,  who  replied,  two  days  later, 


236       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

that  Lincoln's  letter  "will  greatly  aid  us  in 
bringing  our  friends  to  a  conclusion  such  as 
the  interests  of  the  country  require."  The 
campaign,  which  ended  in  Davis's  election, 
was  a  long  and  doubtful  one.  On  Octo 
ber  12  Judge  Hugh  L.  Bond  wrote  Sec 
retary  Stanton  that,  in  view  of  the  canvass,  he 
hoped  the  draft  and  the  enlistment  of  negroes 
in  Maryland  might  be  postponed  until  after 
the  election.3 

Dr.  Hosmer  writes 4  that  of  the  new  men  in 
Congress  in  December,  1863,  "perhaps  the 
most  brilliant  was  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of 
Maryland,  whose  ardent  unionism  had  oper 
ated  powerfully  to  save  his  State  from  seces 
sion,  and  who,  though,  before  the  war  a  sup 
porter  of  John  Bell,  was  opposed  to  the  con 
servatives  and  a  promoter  of  the  war.  His 
powers  were  conspicuous,  and  the  highest  an 
ticipations  were  entertained  of  his  eminence  as 
a  statesman,  blasted  two  years  later  by  his  pre 
mature  death." 

When  Congress  met,  on  December  7,  the 
Clerk  had  not  placed  the  names  of  the  Mary 
land  members  upon  the  roll;  but,  in  spite  of 
some  protests,  the  House,  by  the  vote  of  94  to 
74,  ordered  them  put  there.  Davis  at  once 
had  some  Missouri  representatives  added  to 
the  roll,  but  his  first  important  action,  forbod- 
ing  what  was  to  follow,  was  the  substitute 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         237 

which  he  offered  to  Thaddeus  Stevens's  reso 
lutions  concerning  the  President's  message. 
Davis  moved  that  "so  much  of  the  message  as 
related  to  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to 
guarantee  a  republican  form  of  government  to 
the  States  in  which  the  governments  recog 
nized  by  the  United  States  have  been  abro 
gated,  or  overthrown,  be  referred  to  a  select 
committee  of  nine,  to  be  named  by  the  Speak 
er,  who  shall  report  the  bills  necessary  and 
proper  for  carrying  into  effect  the  foregoing 
guarantee."  This  was  the  entering  point  of 
the  wedge  between  the  Presidential  and  Con 
gressional  plans  of  reconstruction.  Stevens 
did  not  object  to  the  change,  which  was  car 
ried  by  a  vote  of  101  to  80.  Davis  claimed 
that  the  original  resolution  "intended  to  point 
to  what,  in  the  very  inaccurate  phraseology  of 
the  day,  is  known  as  reconstruction,"  and  con 
tinued  thus: 

"Now,  as  I  think  there  has  been  no  destruc 
tion  6  of  the  Union,  no  breaking  up  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  I  carefully  avoid  the  use  of  any  such 
word.  The  fact,  as  well  as  the  constitutional 
view  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  States 
enveloped  by  the  rebellion,  is  that  a  force  has 
overthrown,  or  the  people,  in  a  moment  of 
madness,  have  abrogated  the  governments 
which  existed  in  those  States  under  the  Con 
stitution  and  were  recognized  by  the  United 


238       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

States  prior  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebel 
lion.  The  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  engaged  in  two  operations.  One  is  the  sup 
pression  of  armed  resistance  to  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  United  States  and  which  is 
endeavoring  to  suppress  that  opposition  by 
arms.  Another — a  very  delicate  and  perhaps 
as  high  a  duty — is  to  see  when  armed  resist 
ance  shall  be  removed,  that  governments  shall 
be  restored  in  those  States,  republican  in 
form."  Davis  wished  to  limit  the  investiga 
tion  of  the  committee  to  the  latter  question, 
and  had  not  intended  to  instruct  the  commit 
tee  to  report  any  particular  measure.  He  was 
made  chairman  of  the  committee,  and  began 
work  at  once.  On  January  18,  1864,  he  asked 
to  be  allowed  to  report  from  this  "select  com 
mittee  on  the  rebellious  States"  a  bill  to  guar 
anty  them  a  republican  form  of  government 
and  have  the  bill  made  a  special  order.  He 
failed  to  get  the  two-thirds  vote  needed  for 
this.  A  few  days  later  his  own  position  was 
exhibited  7  in  the  debate  on  an  election  case, 
when  he  said  that  there  was  no  legal  authority 
to  hold  any  election  in  Louisiana,  and  that  any 
attempt  to  hold  an  election  therein  was  an 
usurpation  of  sovereign  authority,  which  was 
properly  forbidden  by  the  military  authority.8 
On  February  10  he  moved  that  the  credentials 
of  men  who  claimed  election  from  Arkansas 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         239 

be  laid  on  the  table,  but  six  days  later  with 
drew  the  motion,  as  he  did  not  wish  to  show 
"an  illiberal  spirit,"  nor  raise  an  issue  with 
Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  advocating 
their  admission.  Because,  however,  it  was  not 
a  mere  question  of  election  law,  but  the  recog 
nition  of  a  State  government  was  involved,  he 
was  not  willing  to  have  that  recognition  passed 
upon  as  a  collateral  matter.  Credentials  were 
"presented,  not  signed  by  any  officer  of  any 
State  government  known  to  the  United  States. 
There  is  a  rebel  Legislature  in  Arkansas — is 
there  any  other?  If  the  contestant  does  not 
come  under  that  Legislature,"  which,  we  say, 
"is  a  body  usurping  the  authority  of  the  United 
States  and  merely  a  collection  of  rebels,  hav 
ing  no  legal  authority,"  whence  does  he  come? 
There  is  "no  State's  government  in  the  State  of 
Arkansas  recognized  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  and  that  appears  to  this  house,  in  in- 
tendment  of  law,  or  in  point  of  fact."  To  ac 
cept  these  credentials  was  to  assume  such  a 
government.  Davis  wished  a  direct  vote  upon 
that  question,  to  see  if  the  House  "will  recog 
nize  as  a  government  this  thing  organized 
without  any  authority  of  law,  without  the  su 
pervision  of  any  official  authority,  organized 
merely  under  the  dictation  of  a  military  com 
mander."  It  would  be  unsuitable  to  permit 
the  Committee  on  Elections  to  take  jurisdic- 


240       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tion  of  the  question  of  the  existence  of  a  State 
government,  yet  recognition  of  the  govern 
ment  is  a  condition  precedent  to  the  election 
of  a  member  therefrom.  "If  we  recognize  a 
government  in  Arkansas  and  the  President 
refuse  to  recognize  it,  in  what  condition  are 
wre?  If  the  Senate  recognize  a  government 
and  we  fail  to  recognize  it,  in  what  condition 
are  we?  Or,  to  take  the  other  case,  if  the 
President,  under  the  pledge  given  in  his  proc 
lamation  of  the  8th  of  December,  i863,9  shall 
see  fit  to  recognize  it  as  the  government  of  a 
State  and  to  treat  it  as  entitled  to  the  guaran 
tee  of  the  United  States,  and  if  this  House,  or 
both  Houses  of  Congress  refuse  to  recognize 
it,  where  are  we?  Can  there  be  a  recognition 
of  a  State  government  which  does  not  unite 
the  suffrages  of  all  three  political  depart 
ments?"  If  the  electoral  vote  from  a  disputed 
State  will  decide  a  Presidential  election,  who 
is  to  be  the  judge  of  its  validity?  "If  we  are 
willing  to  say  that  State  governments  exist  in 
all  the  rebel  States,  though  the  war  is  waged 
against  us  by  their  authority,  then  we  take  one 
view  of  the  subject.  But,  if  the  States  have 
ceased  to  exist,  if  the  fact  of  their  rebellion 
has  destroyed  their  relation  to  the  United 
States  as  governments,  that  is  a  political  ques 
tion  to  be  determined  by  the  President,  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  by  the  Senate 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         241 

of  the  United  States.  Neither  one  of  the 
three,  nor  any  two  of  the  three  can  determine 
it."  Davis  saw  the  dangers  of  divided  opin 
ion,  which  might  even  lead  to  a  civil  war  for 
the  Presidency,  and,  therefore,  he  moved  to 
lay  the  papers  on  the  table.  He  stated  that 
"the  President  has  called  on  General  Banks  to 
organize  another  hemaphrodite  government, 
half  military,  half  republican,  representing 
the  alligators  and  the  frogs  of  Louisiana,  and 
to  place  that  upon  the  footing  of  a  government 
of  a  State  of  the  United  States."  Arkansas 
had  thrown  off  her  allegiance  and  defied  the 
authority  of  the  United  States.  "I  think  that 
the  State  of  Arkansas  is  not  extinguished.  I 
think  that  no  citizen  of  Arkansas  has  lost  any 
personal  privilege  of  citizenship,  nor  have 
they  withdrawn  from  any  responsibility  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  A  State 
should  exist  with  a  government.  The  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  assumes  that, 
when  it  compels  Congress  to  guarantee  a  gov 
ernment.  The  rebel  government  in  Arkansas 
is  a  military  government,  and,  therefore,  not  a 
republican  government,  and  the  United  States 
is  now  engaged  in  removing  it.  When  it  is 
removed  there  will  be  no  government  in  point 
of  fact,  as  there  is  none  in  point  of  law.  Today 
the  condition  of  Arkansas  I  take  to  be  this: 
Mere  political  privileges  depend  upon  her  or- 

16 


242       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ganization  of  a  State  government,  and  not 
upon  the  fact  of  her  being  a  State.  Without 
her  Legislature,  there  are  no  electors  entitled 
to  vote  for  Congressmen."  "A  man  may  live, 
but  without  arms  he  can  not  well  work,  with 
out  legs  he  cannot  well  walk.  The  substance 
of  the  man  is  there,  but  the  faculty  of  action 
is  gone.  It  is  the  paralyzed  condition  in 
which  the  rebel  States  now  exist."  The  "con 
stitution  of  Arkansas  is  now,  by  the  mere  ef 
fect  of  the  rebellion,  absolutely  dead  and  inca 
pable  of  revival,  except  by  a  revolutionary 
process."  The  Constitution  uses  not  the  word 
may,  but  shall,  in  the  guarantee  clause,  so  that 
it  is  not  merely  a  right,  but  a  duty,  for  Con 
gress.  "They  are  bound  to  see  that  it  is  not 
merely  a  mushroom  growth,  under  the  dicta 
tion  of  a  military  commander,  or  of  the  Presi 
dent's  proclamation.  Arkansas  is  in  the 
Union,  so  far  that  we  are  bound  to  see  that 
nothing  which  has  the  form,  without  the  sub 
stance,  of  government  shall  control  her  citi 
zens,  that  the  loyal  men  of  Arkansas  cannot 
be  governed  by  traitors,  who  call  themselves 
the  Legislature  of  Arkansas.  If  the  people  of 
Arkansas  have  taken  steps  to  organize  a  gov 
ernment  and,  upon  investigation,  we  shall  be 
satisfied  that  what  they  have  done  fairly  rep 
resents  the  masses  of  the  people  of  Arkansas 
and  that  the  thing  called  a  government  is  one 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         243 

to  which  we  can  intrust  the  interests  of  the 
people  of  Arkansas  and  the  government  so  or 
ganized  is  one  which  we  can  say  shall  be 
obeyed  and  which  we  are  ready  to  commit 
ourselves  to  enforce  compulsory  obedience  to, 
then  I  will  consider  the  questions  of  election 
law  involved  in  this  case.  But  it  must  not 
be  done  by  this  House  alone;  it  must  not  be 
done  by  the  Senate  alone;  it  must  not  be  done 
under  the  proclamation  of  the  President, 
which  so  far  as  it  is  anything  more  than  a 
State  paper,  is  a  grave  usurpation  upon  the 
legislative  authority  of  the  United  States.  It 
must  be  done  by  the  concurrence  of  the  legis 
lative  and  executive  powers,  and  without  that 
it  is  nothing.  I  cast  no  imputation  upon  the 
faith  of  the  President.  I  impeach  very  seri 
ously  the  legality  of  his  proclamation." 10 

On  January  14,  1864,  when  the  bill  to  con 
fiscate  the  property  of  rebels  was  under  dis 
cussion,11  after  S.  S.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  had  spoken 
in  opposition  thereto,  Davis  sarcastically  re 
marked  that  it  was  fortunate  that  the  Admin 
istration  had  been  placed  beyond  the  necessity 
of  relying  upon  the  support  of  Cox,  who  had 
promised  to  give  it  to  all  proper  measures  for 
"suppression  of  the  rebellion."  The  opposi 
tion  had  been  sent  to  Congress  to  "oppose,  to 
embarrass,  to  libel  and  break  down  the  Ad 
ministration,"  and,  "when  they  tender  sup- 


244       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

port,"  Davis  looked  "at  it  with  something  of 
suspicion."  It  was  the  "settled,  resolved  pol 
icy  of  the  Administration"  to  confiscate  the 
property  of  "some  portion  of  the  people  en 
gaged  in  the  rebellion."  Davis  agreed  with 
the  wisdom  of  this  policy,  though  he  would 
confine  the  effect  of  the  confiscation  "to  a  few 
of  the  leaders,"  and  he  felt  that  the  bill  abol 
ishing  the  limitation  of  the  operation  of  such 
confiscation  to  life  estates  was  a  wise  one.  It 
had  been  argued  that,  to  pass  such  a  bill  was 
a  violation  of  the  Constitutional  provision  that 
"no  attainder  of  treason  should  work  corrup 
tion  of  blood,  or  forfeiture,  except  during  the 
life  of  the  person  attainted."  This  provision, 
Davis  showed,  did  not  apply  here,  for  there 
was  no  attainder,  and  the  Constitution  limited 
in  no  other  way  "a  forfeiture  of  the  whole  fee 
in  lands."1  There  being  no  attainder,  the 
only  question  was  whether  the  bill  proposed 
to  confiscate  property  without  due  process  of 
law,  and  a  long  line  of  precedents  supported 
the  proposition  that  such  a  judgment  of  con 
fiscation  could  be  inflicted  in  rent.  The  reve 
nue  law  of  1799  forfeited  property  brought  in 
under  fraudulent  invoices,  the  navigation 
laws,  and  the  laws  against  the  foreign  slave 
trade  provided  for  the  forfeiture  of  vessels, 
without  regard  to  any  proceedings  against 
masters  or  owners,  ardent  spirits  carried 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         245 

among  the  Indians  are  forfeited,  and  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Maryland  the  statute  book  long  pro 
vided  that  negro  slaves  introduced  from  any 
other  State  and  from  foreign  countries  should 
be  free.  In  Davis's  legal  practice  in  Alexan 
dria,  in  Washington,  and  in  Baltimore  he  had 
frequently  known  cases  arising  under  these 
laws  and  found  that  "the  law  vested  freedom; 
the  court  authenticated  it,"  while  an  appeal  to 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  proved  the 
validity  of  the  law,  "forfeiting  the  master's 
right  of  property,  but  not  indicting  him  of 
crime."  The  law  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia  in  1850  con 
tained  a  similar  provision,  and  the  "tradi 
tional  laws  of  the  republic"  settled  it  that  the 
"United  States  Government  can  say  that  those 
who  have  been  in  arms  against  it  shall  forfeit 
their  property  and  that  the  tribunals  of  the 
country  shall  enforce  it  in  rem." 

Early  in  the  war,  Davis  perceived  the  im 
portance  of  providing  for  the  reorganization 
of  the  seceding  States.  During  the  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress  Davis,  who  was  not  then  a 
member  of  the  House,  prepared  a  bill  for  this 
purpose,  which  bill  provided  a  "complete 
guarantee  to  the  people  of  the  insurrectionary 
States  that,  upon  certain  conditions,  these 
States  might  resume  their  place  in  the  Union 
when  the  insurrection  had  ceased."  He  hand- 


246       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ed  John  Sherman  the  bill,  and  the  latter  intro 
duced  it  and  had  it  referred  to  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  which  never  reported  it.13  The 
subject  was,  therefore,  one  upon  which  Davis 
had  long  pondered. 

On  February  1 5,  Davis,  on  behalf  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  rebellious  States,  asked  consent  to 
have  a  bill  printed  and,  reporting  it,  had  it 
read  twice.  A  month  later,14  when  the  House 
had  refused  to  recommit  this  bill,15  Davis 
made  an  eloquent  speech  in  favor  of  it.16  The 
preamble  of  the  bill,  as  first  introduced,  is  im 
portant,  since  it  contained  the  Congressional 
theory  of  reconstruction  in  its  earliest  form.17 
"The  so-called  Confederate  States  are"  de 
scribed  as  "a  public  enemy,  waging  an  unjust 
war,  whose  injustice  is  so  glaring  that  they 
have  no  right  to  claim  the  mitigation  of  the 
extreme  rights  of  war  which  are  accorded  by 
modern  usage  to  an  enemy."  As  a  result  of 
this  condition,  "none  of  the  States  which  have 
joined  the  so-called  Southern  Confederacy  can 
be  considered  and  treated  as  entitled  to  be  rep 
resented  in  Congress,  or  to  take  any  part  in 
the  political  government  of  the  Union."  Al 
though  this  proposed  preamble  was  not  adopt 
ed,  it  showed  Davis's  position.  The  bill  pro 
vided  for  the  appointment  of  a  provisional 
Governor  in  each  rebellious  State  in  which 
resistance  ceased,  and  for  an  enrollment  of 


, 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         247 

white  male  citizens.  When  a  majority  of 
these  should  have  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance, 
they  should  elect  delegates  to  a  convention, 
which  must  insert  in  the  constitution  it  pre 
pared  provisions  preventing  any  prominent 
civil  or  military  officers  of  the  Confederacy 
from  voting  for  or  becoming  Governor  or 
member  of  the  Legislature;  prohibiting  invol 
untary  servitude,  and  declaring  that  no  debt, 
State  or  Confederate,  created  by  or  under  the 
sanction  of  the  usurping  power,  should  be  rec 
ognized.  After  a  Constitution  had  been 
framed  by  the  convention  and  ratified  by  the 
voters,  it  should  be  certified  to  by  the  Presi 
dent,  who  should,  by  proclamation,  recognize 
the  government  established  thereunder  as  that 
of  the  State,  and  after  these  events  members  of 
Congress  and  electors  might  be  chosen  from 
that  State.  During  the  provisional  period,  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  be 
fore  the  rebellion  should  be  in  force.  All 
slaves  were  emancipated  in  these  States,  and 
the  Federal  courts  must  discharge  them  by 
habeas  corpus  writs  and  inflict  fines  on  persons 
holding  them.18 

In  his  speech  of  March  22,  Davis  called  to 
the  support  of  the  bill  "all  who  consider 
slavery  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,"  who  think 
that  "freedom  and  permanent  peace  are  in 
separable,  and  who  are  determined"  to  secure 


248       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

both  these  ends  "by  adequate  legislation."  He 
believed  that  the  bill  prescribed  "such  condi 
tions  as  will  secure,  not  merely  civil  govern 
ment  to  the  people  of  the  rebellious  States,  but 
will  also  secure  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  permanent  peace  after  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion."  He  urged  that  the  bill  be 
accepted  both  by  those  who  thought  that  "the 
rebellion  has  placed  the  citizens  of  the  rebel 
States  beyond  the  protection  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  that  Congress,  therefore, has  supreme 
power  over  them  as  conquered  enemies,"  and 
by  those  who  thought  that  "they  have  not 
ceased  to  be  citizens  and  States,  but  that  Con 
gress  is  charged  with  a  high  political  power 
by  the  Constitution  to  guarantee  republican 
governments  in  the  States,  and  that  this  is  the 
proper  time  and  the  proper  mode  of  exercis 
ing  it."  If  slavery  is  dead,  let  us  bury  it  out  of 
our  sight.  He  insisted  firmly  that  the  Consti 
tution  not  merely  conferred  a  power,  but  im 
posed  a  duty  on  Congress  to  guarantee  a  re 
publican  form  of  government.  Congress  pos 
sessed  "a  plenary,  supreme, unlimited  political 
jurisdiction,  paramount  over  courts,  subject 
only  to  the  judgment  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  embracing  within  its  scope 
every  legislative  measure  necessary  and 
proper  to  make  it  effectual,  subject  to  no  re 
vision  but  that  of  the  people."  It  is  a  political 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         249 

question  which  the  Supreme  Court  will  not 
review. 

Secession  is  neither  domestic  violence,  for 
the  act  was  "the  offspring"  of  the  people's 
"free  and  enforced  will;"  nor  invasion,  for  no 
foreign  power  attacked  the  South;  but  it  is 
the  act  of  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States, 
"constituting  either  a  legal  revolution,  which 
makes  them  independent,"  or  a  "usurpation 
against  the  authority  of  the  United  States." 
All  parties  in  Congress  took  the  latter  view 
and  agreed  that  no  "rebel  government"  was  a 
"State  government  within  the  meaning  of  the 
Constitution."  The  President  and  the  courts 
of  law  concurred  in  this  view.  He  cited  Lu 
ther  vs.  Borden,  the  Rhode  Island  case,  as  au 
thority  for  the  position  that  "it  is  the  exclusive 
prerogative  of  Congress — of  Congress  and  not 
of  the  President — to  determine  what  is  not 
the  established  government  of  the  State." 
Congress  was  now  executing  its  duty  "by  its 
arms,"  and  was  "engaged  in  suppressing  a 
military  usurpation."  Success  would  result 
in  "the  overthrow  of  all  semblance  of  govern 
ment  in  the  rebel  States.  The  Government  of 
the  United  States  is  then,  in  fact,  the  only  gov 
ernment  existing  in  those  States,  and  it  is  there 
charged  to  guarantee  them  republican  govern 
ments,"  which  duty  carried  with  it  the  right 
to  pass  necessary  laws  to  accomplish  that  re- 


250       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

suit  and  to  see  that  "everything  inconsistent 
with  the  permanent  continuance  of  republican 
government  shall  be  weeded  out."  He  saw  no 
choice  but  that  "the  rebel  States  must  be  gov 
erned  by  Congress,  till  they  submit  and  form  a 
State  government  under  the  Constitution,  or 
Congress  must  recognize  State  governments 
wrhich  do  not  recognize  either  Congress  or  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  there 
must  be  an  entire  absence  of  all  government  in 
the  rebel  States,  and  that  is  anarchy."  He  re 
jected  the  two  latter  positions,  for  to  recognize 
a  government  which  does  not  recognize  the 
Constitution  is  absurd,"  and  to  "accept  the  al 
ternative  of  anarchy  is  to  assert  the  failure  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  end  of  republican 
government."  He  found  no  government  in 
the  rebel  States,  except  the  authority  of  Con 
gress,  which  body  must  "administer  civil  gov 
ernment,  until  the  people  shall,  under  its  guid 
ance,  submit  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  under  the  laws  which  it  shall  im 
pose  and  on  the  conditions  Congress  may  re 
quire,  reorganize  a  republican  government 
for  themselves  and  Congress  shall  recognize 
that  government."  The  insurrection  was  not 
yet  suppressed,  and  it  was  not  yet  time  to  re 
organize  the  State  governments,  but  in  that 
"intermediate  period"  Congress  ought  to  take 
possession  of  the  "States  now  in  rebellion," 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         251 

until  a  "republican  government  can  be  estab 
lished  deliberately,  undisturbed  by  the  sound 
or  fear  of  arms  and  under  the  guidance  of 
law." 

No  one  State  had  been  absolutely  conquered 
and  in  no  such  State  did  "enough  of  the  popu 
lation"  adhere  "to  the  Union  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  government  of  the  State.  One-tenth 
cannot  control  nine-tenths.  Only  in  West 
Virginia,  and  possibly  in  Tennessee,  were 
there  enough  Union  men  to  be  intrusted  with 
power.  *  *  *  You  can  get  a  handful  of 
men  in  the  several  States  who  would  be  glad 
to  take  the  offices,  if  protected  by  the  troops  of 
the  United  States,  but  you  have  nowhere  a 
body  of  independent,  loyal  partisans  of  the 
United  States  ready  to  meet  the  rebels  in  arms, 
ready  to  die  for  the  republic,  who  claim  the 
Constitution  as  their  birthright, count  all  other 
privileges  light  in  comparison,  and  are  re 
solved  at  every  hazard  to  maintain  it."  Davis 
maintained  that  the  "loyal  masses  of  the 
South"  in  1860  numbered  a  full  half  of  the 
population.  "They  did  not  rebel,  they  voted 
against  secession,  they  acquiesced  in  the  vote 
which  decreed  it,  they  went  with  their  State, 
they  were  content  to  accept  what  they  did  not 
prefer,  but  were  unwilling  to  resist;  they  pre 
ferred  Union  with  peace,  but  when  Union  and 
peace  could  not  exist  together,  they  yielded  up 


252       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  Union,  rather  than  make  war  to  maintain 
it."  Davis  did  not  trust  these  men,  and  he 
further  asserted  that  no  man  could  say  that 
any  respectable  portion  of  the  Southerners 
were  willing  to  accept  any  terms  that  even  the 
Democrats  would  offer  them.  He  would  not 
entrust  the  State  governments  to  "doubtful 
loyalty,"  until  "armed  rebellion  shall  have 
been  trampled  into  the  dust"  and  there  "shall 
be  in  the  South  no  hope  of  independence  and 
no  fear  of  subjection,  until  the  United  States 
is  bearded  by  no  military  power  and  the  laws 
can  be  executed  by  courts  and  sheriffs,  without 
the  ever-present  menace  of  military  authori 
ty."  Until  then  each  seceding  State  should 
be  administered  by  a  civil  government  ap 
pointed  by*  the  President. 

He  heartily  approved  a  constitutional 
amendment  prohibiting  slavery,  but  felt  that 
it  was  "not  a  remedy  for  the  evils  we  must  deal 
with,"  for  it  did  not  provide  for  the  "civil 
administration  of  the  States  prior  to  the  recog 
nition  of  State  government." 

Next  he  discussed  Lincoln's  amnesty  proc 
lamation  of  December  8,  which  "provided  no 
guarantee  of  law  to  watch  over  the  organiza 
tion"  of  the  new  governments,  which  pledged 
the  Executive,  but  not  Congress,  and  might 
lead  to  a  government  being  recognized  by  the 
one  and  not  by  the  other,  which  did  not  satis- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         253 

factorily  "accomplish  the  final  removal  of 
slavery."  The  proclamation  might  not  be 
valid;  but,  even  if  it  were,  it  recognized 
slavery  in  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana. 
The  operation  of  the  proclamation  would  be 
come  a  judicial  question  "as  soon  as  the  State 
government  is  recognized,"  and  Southern 
courts  will  maintain  the  institution  of  slavery, 
if  possible.  Davis  did  not  "desire  to  argue 
the  legality  of  the  proclamation  of  freedom," 
but  added:  "I  think  it  safer  to  make  it  law." 
This  would  be  done  by  the  bill,  "by  the  para 
mount  power  of  Congress  to  reorganize  gov 
ernments  in  those  States,  to  impose  such  con 
ditions  as  it  thinks  necessary  to  secure  the  per 
manence  of  republican  government,  to  refuse 
to  recognize  any  governments  there  which  do 
not  prohibit  slavery  forever,  "for  slavery  is 
really,  radically  inconsistent  with  the  perma 
nence  of  republican  governments."  The  Con 
gressional  jurisdiction  had  "attached  in  all  the 
rebel  States"  and,  "until  Congress  has  assent 
ed,  there  is  no  State  government  in  any  rebel 
State."  Davis  believed  that  the  time  had 
"come,  not  merely  to  strike  the  arms  from  the 
hands  of  the  rebels,  but  to  strike  the  fetters 
from  the  arms  of  the  slaves  and  remove  that 
domineering  and  cohesive  power  without 
which  we  could  have  had  no  rebellion,  which 
is  now  its  animating  spirit  and  which  will  die 


254       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

when  it  dies."  Webster  might  well  be  fol 
lowed  in  his  argument  in  the  Rhode  Island 
case  that  the  "great  political  law  of  America 
is  that  every  change  of  government  shall  be 
conducted  under  the  supervising  authority  of 
some  existing  legislative  body,  throwing  the 
protection  of  law  around  the  polls,  defining 
the  rights-of  voters,  protecting  them  in  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  guarding 
against  fraud,  repelling  violence  and  ap 
pointing  arbiters  to  pronounce  the  result  and 
declare  the  persons  chosen  by  the  people." 
This  bill  applied  this  ''great  principle  of 
American  political  law." 

For  two  months  the  bill  was  before  the 
House — until,  on  April  20,  Davis  announced 
that  he  expected  to  call  for  the  previous  ques 
tion.  On  May  4  he  moved  to  perfect  the  bill, 
by  excluding  therefrom  the  rule  of  one-tenth 
of  the  citizens  as  sufficient  to  reorganize  the 
State  government  and  by  requiring  a  majority 
so  to  act.19  On  the  other  hand,  he  proposed 
to  soften  the  operation  of  the  clause  excluding 
the  officers  of  the  State  and  Confederacybynot 
having  it  cover  inferior  military  officers,  or 
those  whose  duties  were  merely  ministerial,  so 
that  the  exclusion  operated  only  on  persons  of 
dangerous  political  influence.  Davis's  views, 
backed  by  his  speeches  of  unusual  power, 
caused  such  a  change  in  the  temper  of  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         255 

House  that,  although  the  Republicans  were  at 
first  almost  unanimous  in  favor  of  accepting 
Lincoln's  plan,  when  the  bill  came  to  be  voted 
upon,  Davis  won  by  a  vote  of  73  to  59.  Dr. 
Hosmer  adds,  "rarely  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States  has  eloquence  produced  so 
marked  a  result."  20  The  bill  remained  in  the 
Senate  for  a  number  of  weeks.  When  it  was 
returned  to  the  House  with  amendments, 
Davis  moved  not  to  lay  these  amendments  on 
the  table,  but  to  ask  for  a  committee  of  confer 
ence,  and  carried  the  House  with  him  by  a 
vote  of  63  to  42.  The  bill  was  passed  on  In 
dependence  Day,  on  which  day  Congress  ad 
journed.  Chandler  went  to  Lincoln  and  urged 
him  to  sign  the  bill,21  but  in  vain,  for  Lincoln 
took  the  ground  that  "Congress  has  no  consti 
tutional  power  over  slavery  in  the  States,"  and 
said  that,  "in  asserting  that  the  insurrection 
ary  States  are  no  longer  in  the  Union,"  the  bill 
made  a  "fatal  admission  that  States,  whenever 
they  please,  may,  of  their  own  motion,  dissolve 
their  connection  with  the  Union.  Now,  we 
cannot  survive  that  admission,  I  am  con 
vinced.  If  that  be  true,  I  am  not  President; 
these  gentlemen  are  not  Congress.  I  have  la 
boriously  endeavored  to  avoid  that  question 
ever  since  it  first  began  to  be  mooted  and  thus 
to  avoid  confusion  and  disturbance  in  our  own 
counsels."  For  that  reason  he  had  urged  the 


256       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

passage  of  a  constitutional  amendment  abol 
ishing  slavery.  He  maintained  that  "I 
thought  it  much  better,  if  it  were  possible,  to 
restore  the  Union  without  the  necessity  of  a  vio 
lent  quarrel  among  its  friends  as  to  whether 
certain  States  have  been  in  or  out  of  the  Union 
during  the  war — a  merely  metaphysical  ques 
tion  and  one  unnecessary  to  be  forced  into  dis 


cussion." 


A  number  of  years  later  Blaine  wrote  that 
the  Reconstruction  bill  was  "commonly  re 
garded  as  a  rebuke  to  the  course  of  the  Presi 
dent,  in  proceeding  with  the  grave  and  mo 
mentous  task  of  reconstruction  ffi  without  wait 
ing  the  action  or  involving  the  counsel  of  Con 
gress."  Lincoln,  however,  was  not  in  the  hu 
mor  for  a  rebuke.  "Though  the  least  preten 
tious  of  men,  he  had  an  abounding  self-respect 
and  a  full  appreciation  of  the  dignity  and 
power  of  his  office.  He  had  given  careful 
study  to  the  duties,  the  responsibilities  and  the 
limitations  of  the  respective  departments  of 
government,  and  he  was  not  willing  that  his 
judgment  should  be  revised  or  his  course  cen 
sured,  however  indirectly,  by  a  co-ordinate 
branch  of  the  Government."  23 

The  astute  veteran  statesman,  John  Sher 
man,  wrote  in  his  Recollections,24  a  generation 
later,  that  "I  have  always  thought  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  made  a  serious  mistake  in  defeating  a 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         257 

measure  which,  if  adopted,  would  have  avert 
ed  many,  if  not  all,  the  difficulties  that  subse 
quently  arose  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  rebel 
States." 

Davis's  position  on  the  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs  brought  him  into  conflict  with 
Seward  on  the  Mexican  question.25  On  De 
cember  i9he  secured  the  passage  by  the  House 
of  a  resolution  concerning  the  activities  of  the 
French  in  Mexico.  On  January  7  he  spoke 
in  the  debate  upon  the  Diplomatic  bill,  saying 
that  the  civil  troubles  in  the  United  States  had 
developed  a  deep-seated  hostility  in  several  of 
the  European  governments,  and  one  of  them 
had  "intruded  with  armed  power  into  Mexi 
co  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  upon  our 
borders  a  monarchical  government,  menacing 
the  institutions  of  the  United  States."  Before 
the  rebellion,  France  would  not  have  thought 
it  prudent  to  do  this.  In  the  judgment  of  the 
author  of  the  "Warfare  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahri- 
man,"  the  designs  of  the  European  govern 
ments  extended  "to  the  whole  of  what  the  Em 
peror  of  the  French  terms  Latin  America, 
and,  if  the  United  States  mean  that  their  in 
fluence  shall  meet  European  influence,  wher 
ever  it  may  see  fit  to  show  itself  in  Latin 
America,  then  there  we  must  have  our  repre 
sentatives  near  all  those  governments.  I  think, 
very  possibly,  one  gentleman  might  discharge 

17 


258       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

all  the  ordinary  duties  relating  to  commercial 
matters  among  several  of  those  governments. 
The  material  thing  is  not  the  protection  of  our 
commerce,  but  the  representation  and  protec 
tion  of  our  political  power,  our  political  in 
fluence  and  the  interests  of  republican  govern 
ment  represented  and  which  I  take  it  we  mean 
to  maintain  in  Central  America,  as  well  as  in 
Mexico,  when  the  time  shall  come.26 

On  April  4,  from  the  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs,  Davis  reported  a  joint  resolu 
tion,27  declaring  that  Congress  "were  unwill 
ing,  by  silence,  to  leave  the  nations  of  the 
world  under  the  impression  that  they  are  in 
different  spectators  of  the  deplorable  events 
now  transpiring  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico; 
and  that  they,  therefore,  think  fit  to  declare 
that  it  does  not  accord  with  the  policy  of  the 
United  States  to  acknowledge  any  monarchi 
cal  government  erected  on  the  ruins  of  any 
republican  government  under  the  auspices  of 
any  European  power."  In  a  brief  speech, 
supporting  the  resolution,  Davis  asserted  that 
the  Democratic  policy  towards  Latin  America 
was  that  "of  the  wolf  to  the  lamb,"  frighten 
ing  "foreign  wolves  from  the  prey  they 
marked  for  their  own,"  while  the  Republican 
policy  was  "to  cultivate  friendship  with  our 
republican  brethren  of  Mexico  and  South 
America,  to  aid  in  consolidating  republican 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         259 

principles,  to  retain  popular  government  in 
all  this  continent  from  the  fangs  of  monarchi 
cal  or  aristocratic  power,  and  to  lead  the  sis 
terhood  of  American  republics  in  the  paths  of 
peace,  prosperity  and  power."  He  wished  to 
state  the  American  position,  "before  another 
usurper  has  placed  his  foot  on  Mexican  soil." 

Under  Davis's  leadership  the  House  passed 
unanimously  this  resolution,  to  which  Rhodes 
refers,  as  speaking  "indubitably  the  opinion  of 
the  country,"  but  as  nevertheless  "an  injudi 
cious  utterance."  It  has  always  been  a  dis 
puted  point  as  to  whether  Congress  should 
take  any  part  in  foreign  affairs,  until  they 
reach  a  crisis  where  the  Legislature  must  con 
stitutionally  be  called  in,  and  the  resolutions 
then  adopted  were  in  accordance  with  a  line 
of  precedents,  which  have  frequently  since 
been  followed  by  Congress.  In  spite  of 
Davis's  urgency,  Sumner  left  the  resolution  to 
slumber  in  his  Senate  committee  room.29 

The  resolution  as  passed  by  the  House  was 
published  in  the  newspapers,  and  Seward 
feared  that  the  French  government  might 
view  it  as  an  unfriendly  act  of  the  United 
States.  Accordingly,  on  April  7,  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  Dayton,  our  Minister  at  Paris,  stating 
that  the  relations  of  the  United  States  with 
Mexico  and  France  constituted  an  executive 
and  not  a  legislative  question,  and  directing 


26o       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Dayton,  in  Lincoln's  name,  to  tell  the  Em 
peror  that  he  contemplated  no  change  in  pol 
icy.  Seward  admitted  that  the  resolution  rep 
resented  the  unanimous  sentiments  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  but  wrote  that  it  was 
another  question  whether  it  was  necessary,  or 
proper,  to  express  such  a  sentiment. 

Seward  should  rather  have  told  Dayton 
that  the  resolution  was  a  joint  one  and  that  un 
til  passed  by  the  Senate  and  signed  by 
the  President,  it  should  not  be  taken  as  an  an 
nouncement  of  the  policy  of  the  country.  Be 
fore  Seward's  dispatch  reached  Dayton, 
Drouyn  de  1'Huys,  the  French  foreign  minis 
ter,  read  the  resolve  and  said  to  our  minister 
in  reference  thereto:  "Do  you  bring  us  peace 
or  war?",  when  he  met  the  latter.  After  read 
ing  de  1'Huys  Seward's  dispatch,  Dayton 
wrote  again,  stating  that  the  difficulty  had 
been  settled.30  As  a  result  of  this,  the  French 
government  announced  in  the  Moniteur  that 
it  had  received  from  the  United  States  satis 
factory  explanations  in  reference  to  the  reso 
lution  passed  by  the  House.  This  announce 
ment  naturally  aroused  Davis,  who  on  May  23 
induced  the  House  to  ask  Lincoln  for  the  ex 
planations  he  gave  Napoleon.  This  was  done, 
and  on  May  25  Davis  had  the  correspondence 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs. 
After  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  present  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         261 

report  of  the  committee,31  late  in  the  session,32 
he  brought  in  a  resolution  statingthatCongress 
had  a  "constitutional  right  to  an  authoritative 
voice  in  declaring  and  prescribing  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  United  States,  as  well  in  the 
recognition  of  new  powers  as  in  other  matters, 
and  it  is  the  constitutional  duty  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  respect  that  policy,  not  less  in  diplo 
matic  negotiations  than  in  the  use  of  the  na 
tional  force,  when  authorized  by  law."  The 
resolution  declared  that  "the  propriety  of  any 
declaration  of  foreign  policy  by  Congress  is 
sufficiently  proved  by  the  vote  which  pro 
nounces  it,  and  each  proposition,  while  pend 
ing  and  undetermined,  is  not  a  fit  topic  of  dip 
lomatic  explanation  with  any  foreign  power." 
This  report  was  adopted  by  the  House.33 

Davis  spoke  on  May  26  in  favor  of  termi 
nating  the  reciprocity  treaty  between  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  because  it  was 
"the  last  remnant  of  the  old,  one-sided  Demo 
cratic  policy,  always  for  the  benefit  of  foreign 
nations."  He  also  opposed  the  treaty,  because 
it  kept  up  a  lucrative  trade  in  coal  against  the 
interest  of  Maryland,  and  because  the  Cana 
dians  had  availed  themselves  of  it  to  modify 
their  tariff,  so  as  to  make  it  injurious  to  us, 
without  violating  the  treaty  in  terms.  He  op 
posed  the  negotiation  of  another  treaty,  since 
"We  are  a  heavily  taxed  people  and  Cana- 


262       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

dians  a  lightly  taxed  one,  and,  therefore,  abso 
lute  reciprocity"  gave  them  the  benefit  of  the 
difference  between  the  taxes  and  was  one-sided. 
"We  can  not  make,"  he  continued,  "arrange 
ments  with  any  country  for  free  trade,  so  as  to 
take  away  the  legislative  discretion  of  Con 
gress  and  render  it  impossible  to  adjust  our 
internal  system  as  the  public  interest  re 
quires."  The  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
had  been  interfered  with  in  adjusting  internal 
taxation,  and  will  be  interfered  with  in  the 
adjustment  of  the  tariff  by  the  exemption  of 
articles  by  this  treaty.  Davis  would  not  pass 
hostile  legislation,  but  wished  that  each  nation 
should  "make  the  law  to  suit  its  own  conven 
ience  and  interest,"  and  then  commerce  will 
be  let  free,  "so  far  as  it  is  mutually  beneficial." 
Such  a  treaty  Davis  believed,  furthermore,  to 
be  a  "direct  invasion  of  the  powers  of  Con 
gress  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na 
tions  and  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  and  trans 
ferred  to  the  President  and  the  Senate  prerog 
atives  which  belong  to  Congress  as  a  whole." 

Desirous  of  having  the  war  brought  to  a  suc 
cessful  conclusion,  on  February  3,  Davis 
moved  to  add  to  the  Enrollment  Act  a  pro 
vision  that  no  one  shall  be  allowed  to  pay  com 
mutation  money  except  clergymen,  Quakers, 
and  men  with  dependent  wife  and  children 
and  less  than  $1,200  income  independent  of 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         263 

their  industry.  To  prevent  hardship,  he 
would  allow,  in  case  of  any  drafted  man  on 
whom  a  near  relative  may  depend  for  support, 
$10  per  month  for  each  person,  not  exceeding 
$500  annually  in  any  case.  The  money  should 
be  paid  directly  to  the  dependent  person,  or 
guardian.  "The  enemy  now  presses  our 
forces  at  every  point  within  rifle  shot,"  said 
Davis.  "Any  sudden  breeze  may  bring  them 
directly  into  collision  with  our  depleted  army. 
In  any  event,  early  in  March,  the  armies  will 
come  into  collision.  It  is,  therefore,  impor 
tant,  unless  the  United  States  mean  to  abandon 
the  contest,  or  unless  they  mean  to  be  beaten, 
directly,  at  the  outset  of  the  campaign,  that 
they  should  restore  their  armies  to  an  adequate 
strength  to  meet  and  overwhelm  the  enemy. 
A  balanced  campaign  is  a  lost  campaign;  a 
balanced  fight  is  for  the  United  States  a  lost 
day,  wasted  honor,  wasted  time,  wasted  treas 
ure."  He  opposed  giving  bounties,  as  he  held 
that  "the  Republic  has  a  right  to  have  the 
services  of  every  man  competent  to  bear  a 
musket.  The  way,  the  democratic  way,  the 
republican  way,  the  wise  and  efficient  way  to 
raise  an  army  is  to  make  every  man,  within  the 
military  ages,  liable  to  military  duty".  A 
week  later,  he  moved  to  strike  out  the  pro 
vision  for  the  payment  of  $300  to  each  owner 
of  a  drafted  slave,  on  the  ground  that,"if  slaves 


264       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

are  liable  to  military  duty  at  all,  they  are  lia 
ble  to  military  duty  on  the  same  ground  as 
every  person  (citizen  or  denizen),  who  owes 
obedience  to  the  laws.  If  they  owe  military 
service,  we  owe  the  master  nothing,  for  taking 
what  the  slaves  owe.  If  they  do  not  owe  mili 
tary  service  to  the  country,  I  do  not  mean,  for 
one,  to  buy  slaves  for  soldiers.  In  my  judg 
ment,  they  do  owe  military  service  to  the  Gov 
ernment.  Can  anybody  contend  for  one  mo 
ment,  in  the  eye  of  reason  and  common  sense, 
that  four  million  men,  strong,  stalwart  and 
energetic,  and  who  have  proved  themselves  on 
the  field  of  battle  to  be  as  courageous  as  white 
men,  more  amenable  to  discipline  and  more 
inured  to  the  vicissitudes  of  climate  and  to 
daily  labor — can  anybody  suppose  that  that 
great  body  of  men  are  not  liable  to  be  taken 
by  the  laws  for  the  defense  of  our  country? 
If  they  are,  it  is  because  they  owe  the  duty  to 
the  Government  and,  if  they  do,  we  owe  the 
master  nothing  for  taking  them."  x 

He  instanced  the  fact  that  a  son  or  an  ap 
prentice  might  be  taken,  "who  is  quite  as  dear, 
quite  as  necessary,  quite  as  valuable  to  the  fa 
ther  and  to  the  employer,"  as  the  slave  to  the 
master,  and  he  denied  that  a  slave,  necessarily, 
was  made  a  "freeman  by  taking  him  for  a  sol 
dier."87 

On  the  next  day,  Davis  moved  M  that  "a  just 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         265 

compensation"  be  paid  "each  loyal  owner  of 
any  slave,  who  may  volunteer  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States."  He  did  this,  not  be 
cause  it  was  "due  at  all  to  the  owner  of  the 
slave,"  but  to  ratify  the  policy  instituted  by 
Lincoln  in  Maryland.  By  Davis's  proposal, 
in  the  case  of  the  slave,  the  bounty  was  to  be 
paid  to  the  master,  on  his  freeing  that  slave; 
as  it  would  have  been  paid  to  the  white  volun 
teer  himself.  He  differentiated  this  case 
from  that  of  a  negro  drafted  into  the  army; 
for,  "if  the  Government  has  the  right  to  take 
the  slave,  it  has  the  right  to  take  him  exactly 
as  it  takes  the  son,  the  father,  or  the  brother  of 
any  citizen  of  the  Republic,  with  no  more 
compensation." 

Near  the  close  of  the  session,39  Davis  unsuc 
cessfully  40  advocated  an  amendment  to  the 
Enrollment  bill,  providing  that  no  exemp 
tion  should  be  obtainable  from  military  service 
on  payment  of  commutation  money.  "We 
want  men,  not  money.  We  want  men  to  bear 
arms."  No  government  should  allow  "one 
man  to  pay  his  obligations  to  the  Republic  in 
money,"  while  it  "requires  another  to  pay  it  in 
blood."  He  further  advocated  the  division 
of  the  men  enrolled  as  fit  for  military  service 
into  two  classes,  one  comprising  those  from 
1 8  to  25  years  of  age,  the  other  those 
from  25  to  40.  Each  year  25,000  men  should 


266       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

be  drafted  from  the  first  class  to  supply  de 
ficiencies  in  the  army,  and  any  more  men 
needed  should  be  taken  from  the  second  class. 
The  draft  should  not  be  undertaken,  until 
volunteers,  each  of  whom  should  be  allowed 
$300  bounty,  had  been  called  for,  and  every 
drafted  man,  having  persons  dependent  on  him 
and  not  having  $300  a  year  income,  should  be 
allowed  $20  per  month  for  such  dependents. 
He  advocated  a  draft  in  the  occupied  parts  of 
the  rebellious  States  and  was  willing  that 
volunteers  secured  in  these  States  should  be 
credited  to  the  State  procuring  them.  With 
these  provisions,  Davis  believed  the  Govern 
ment  would  have  "power  to  create  an  army, 
which,  if  there  be  only  wisdom  and  energy  at 
the  White  House,  will  be  able  to  stamp  out  the 
rebellion  in  another  campaign." 

It  was  proposed  to  establish  a  Bureau  of 
Freedmen's  Affairs  and,  as  the  disposition  to  be 
made  of  free  negroes  was  a  subject  which  in 
terested  Davis  greatly,  he  addressed  the  House 
thereupon  on  January  25. 42  James  Brooks,  of 
New  York,  had  impeached  the  election  of 
representatives  from  Maryland,  saying  that 
if  the  people  of  the  State  had  been  allowed  to 
vote,  they  would  have  elected  other  men,  and 
Davis,  immediately,  denied  that  the  people 
were  prevented  from  voting,  except  those  "who 
disavow,  deny  and  disown  their  allegiance  to 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         267 

the  United  States,"  who,  accordingly,  had  no 
right  to  vote.  The  complaint  of  the  inter 
ference  of  the  military  with  the  elections  was 
made  only  as  to  four  of  the  eight  counties  in 
the  Eastern  Shore  district.  The  Democrats 
had  carried  the  Southern  Maryland  district 
and,  in  the  other  three  districts,  there  was  no 
opposition  to  the  members  elected,  though  "a 
distinguished  adviser  of  the  President"  urged 
opposition  to  Davis.  The  State  was  carried 
for  the  "emancipation  candidate  for  Comp 
troller"  by  20,000  majority,  and  the  extreme 
claims  of  the  opposition  could  not  cut  down 
that  majority  by  one-third.  The  Legislature 
in  Maryland  was  "overwhelmingly  Union," 
but  had  been  opposed  to  emancipation,  until 
the  election  had  "carried  with  it  such  moral 
power"  that  a  majority  of  both  Houses  were 
"compelled  to  pass  just  such  a  bill  as  we  dic 
tated  to  them,"  for  the  summoning  of  a  consti 
tutional  convention. 

Slavery  was  not  yet  dead  in  Maryland.  A 
majority  of  the  Convention  had  to  be  secured 
"on  the  old  slavery  apportionment,  where  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  controlled  the  State," 
and  it  was  uncertain  how  potent  was  the  "hos 
tile  influence  that  presides  near  the  President's 
ear."  As  yet  the  cause  of  emancipation  in 
Maryland  was  under  "no  obligations"  to 
Lincoln  for  its  advance  and,  on  the  22nd,  a 


268       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

convention  of  emancipationists,  while  express 
ing  confidence  in  him  and  "appreciation  of  his 
services,  added  this  significant  admonition" 
that  they  opposed  the  "reorganization  of  State 
Governments"  in  seceded  States,  which  did 
not  "recognize  the  immediate  and  final  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  as  a  condition  precedent,"  and 
that  they  regretted  that  "influences  in  the  cabi 
net"  had  "depressed  the  efforts  of  the  radical 
friends  of  the  administration  and  of  emanic- 
pation  and  given  prominence  to  those  who  are 
the  unwilling  advocates  of  emancipation"  in 
Maryland,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Tennessee  and 
Louisiana.  Davis  justified  this  resolution, 
as  showing  that  the  Maryland  advocates  of 
freedom  gave  a  devotion  "not  personal,  but  to 
principle,"  and  would  support  Lincoln,  only 
so  long  as  he  supported  the  cause  of  emanci 
pation. 

In  the  rebel  States  also,  slavery  was  not 
dead;  but,  if  the  Democrats  should  carry  the 
coming  election,  "slavery  is  as  alive  as  it  was 
the  day  that  the  first  gun  blazed  against  Sum- 
ter."  Davis  set  his  face  to  the  future  and 
feared  not  "to  say,  to  friend  and  foe,  what  the 
times  demand."  Slavery  was  not  destroyed 
by  Lincoln's  proclamation,  which  only  was 
"valid  to  the  extent  of  turning"  slaves  "loose 
from  their  masters  during  the  rebellion.  If  the 
old  governments  should  be  re-established  and 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         269 

the  "dominant  aristocracy"  allowed  "to  re 
possess  the  State  power  in  its  original  pleni 
tude,"  the  institution  would  be  restored. 
"Nothing  but  the  resolute  declaration  of  the 
United  States,  that  it  shall  be  a  condition  prec 
edent  that  slavery  shall  be  prohibited  in  their 
Constitutions  and  that  the  United  States  shall 
give  judicial  guarantee  to  the  negroes,  freedom 
in  fact,  and  that  the  United  States  shall  be 
kept  under  the  control  of  men  of  such  political 
views  and  purposes  that  the  law  will  be  exe 
cuted  as  a  constitutional  law  and  imposed  on 
reluctant  people— nothing  else  can  accom 
plish  the  death  of  slavery." 

Davis  supported  the  bill  as  a  temporary 
measure,  but  he  felt  that  the  nation's  perma 
nent  policy  should  be  determined  toward  the 
freeman.  Lincoln  had  favored  colonization 
and  compensation,  and  Montgomery  Blair, 
"supposed  on  that  and  other  subjects,  more  ac 
curately  to  represent  his  opinion  than  any 
other  person,"  had  commented  on  the  Presi 
dent's  policy,  in  the  form  of  an  attack  upon 
the  "radical  abolitionists."  Davis  acknowl 
edged  himself  to  be  one  of  these  and  denied 
that  they  wished  "to  elevate  to  an  equality" 
with  the  whites  the  negroes,  or  that  it  was 
true  that  "unequal  races  cannot  live  together 
on  terms  of  equality  and  peace."  He  ap 
pealed  to  history  for  the  disproof  of  "that  as- 


270       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tounding  generalization"  and  adduced  the  Vol- 
kerwanderung  as  an  instance.  The  Spaniards 
would  have  kept  the  Moors  as  fellow  citizens, 
had  the  latter  been  willing  to  accept  Christian 
ity.  The  San  Dominican  negroes  engaged  in 
no  slave  revolt;  but,  having  been  freed  by  the 
French  Assembly,  refused  to  submit  to  re-en 
slavement.  In  Jamaica  and  in  the  French 
colonies,  the  f  reedmen  live  peacefully  with  the 
whites.  In  Mexico  and  South  America,  the 
"two  races  are  not  blended,  neither  is  reduced 
to  slavery;"  but  "the  Indian  and  Spaniard  live 
together,  because  both  are  civilized  and  both 
are  Christian  and  both  are  interested  in  the 
same  laws  and  government  and  industry."  In 
our  own  country,  the  Massachusetts  colonists 
warred  on  the  Indians,  because  the  latter  were 
a  "people  of  different  religion,"  who  "refused 
every  form  of  American  civilization."  The 
race  riots  in  New  York  City  in  1863,  a  solitary 
instance  of  such  violence,  were  due  to  the 
Irish,  not  to  Americans,  and  even  these  riots 
had  "more  of  Democratic  hostility  to  the  Gov 
ernment  than  Celtic  hostility  to  the  negro." 
If  the  negro  be  transplanted,  whither  shall  he 
go?  No  place  can  be  found  for  him.  Fur 
thermore,  if  compensation  be  given  loyal  own 
ers  for  loss  of  slaves,  "who  will  submit  to  ad 
ditional  millions  of  taxation?"  Davis  urged 
that  "such  a  debt  would  equal  the  war  debt; 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         271 

it  would  prostrate  the  resources  of  the  country 
for  generations ;  it  would  inflict  the  scourge  of 
perpetual  debt  on  a  land  destroyed  by  civil 
war  and  made  a  desert  by  the  deportation  of 
its  laboring  population."  Nay  more,  "the 
master  will  offer  the  negro  more  to  stay,  than 
the  Government  will  offer  him  to  go.  Two 
generations  can  not  fill  up  his  place,  and,  if 
we  can  stand  his  presence  two  generations,  per 
haps  Christian  philosophy  will  enable  our  de 
scendants  to  reconcile  themselves  to  the  per 
manence  of  what  has  been  found  tolerable  so 
long."  The  negroes  themselves  do  not  wish  to 
leave  America,  but  "prefer  to  stay  where  they 


are." 


Davis  appealed  to  Congress  to  "deal  with 
the  problem,  under  the  conditions  which 
exist."  "The  folly  of  our  ancestors  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  Almighty,  in  its  inscrutable  pur 
poses,  having  allowed"  the  negroes  to  "come 
here  and  planted  them  here,  they  have  a  right 
to  remain  here,  and  they  will  remain  here  to 
the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time.  And 
whether  they  become  our  equals  or  our  su 
periors,  whether  they  blend,  or  remain  a  dis 
tinct  people,  your  posterity  will  know,  for 
their  eyes  will  behold  them,  as  ours  do  now. 
These  are  things  which  we  cannot  control. 
Laws  do  not  make,  laws  can  not  unmake  them. 
If  God  has  made  them  our  equals,  then  they 


272       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

will  work  out  the  problem  which  he  has  sent 
them  to  work  out  and,  if  God  has  stamped 
upon  them  an  uneradicable  inferiority,  you 
cannot  make  one  hair  white  or  black,  or  add 
one  cubit  to  their  stature."  He  insisted  that 
Congress  do  "not  add  to  the  inherent  diffi 
culties  of  the  problem,  prejudices,  drawn  from 
fancies,  not  facts."  Next  he  defined  his  own 
position  as  "a  Marylander,  not  a  'Northern 
fanatic.'  My  father  was  a  slaveholder.  I, 
myself,  for  years  was  a  slaveholder.  I  have 
lived  nearly  all  my  life  in  Maryland.  I  know 
the  temper  of  her  people.  I  have  lived  for 
years  in  Virginia.  I  know  the  temper  of  her 
people;  I  know  the  relations  of  the  white  and 
black  population  in  those  States."  Maryland 
had  more  free  negroes  than  any  other  State 
and  Virginia  came  next.  In  Maryland,  "one- 
eighth  of  our  population  is  free  negro."  In 
1859,  a  Slaveholders'  Convention  was  held  in 
Maryland,  whose  conveners  intended  to  put 
an  "end  to  free  negroism  in  Maryland;"  but 
to  that  convention  came  James  Alfred  Pearce, 
an  old  Whig,  whom  Davis  honored  and  to 
whom  he  referred  as  "always  a  statesman,  al 
ways  a  gentleman,  however,  wandering  into 
errors  in  his  last  days.'"  He  made  a  report, 
in  which  he  said  that  the  result  of  any  removal 
of  the  free  negroes  would  be  "far  greater  than 
all  the  evils  the  people  of  Maryland  ever  suf- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         273 

fered  from  them.  In  the  City  of  Baltimore, 
it  is  estimated  that  there  are  more  than  25,000 
of  them,  employed  chiefly  as  domestic  servants 
or  laborers  in  various  departments  of  industry. 
In  many  of  the  rural  districts  of  the  State, 
where  labor  is  by  no  means  abundant,  they 
furnish  a  large  supply  of  agricultural  labor, 
and  it  is  unquestionable  that  quite  a  large  por 
tion  of  our  soil  could  not  be  tilled  without  their 
aid.  In  some  districts,  they  supplement  all 
the  labor  demanded  by  the  farmers.  Their 
removal  from  the  State  would  deduct  nearly 
50  per  cent,  from  the  household  and  agricul 
tural  labor  furnished  by  people  of  this  color, 
and  indispensable  to  the  people  of  the  State, 
would  produce  great  discomfort  and  incon 
venience  to  the  great  body  of  householders; 
would  break  up  the  business  and  destroy  the 
property  of  large  numbers  of  landowners  and 
landrenters;  would  be  harsh  and  oppressive 
to  those  people  themselves;  would  violate  pub 
lic  sentiment,  which  is  generally  not  only  just 
but  kindly,  and  would,  probably,  lead  to  other 
evils.  We  are  satisfied  that  such  a  measure 
could  not  receive  the  legislative  sanction  and 
would  not  be  tolerated  by  the  great  body  of  the 
people  of  Maryland,  even  with  that  sanction. 
The  committee,  therefore,  cannot  recommend 
their  expulsion  from  the  State.  Still  more 
unwilling  should  they  be  to  favor  any  measure 

18 


274       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

which  looked  to  their  being  deprived  of  the 
right  to  freedom,  which  they  have  acquired  by 
the  indulgence  of  our  laws  and  the  tenderness 
of  their  masters,  whether  wise  or  unwise,  or 
which  they  have  inherited  as  a  birthright" 
After  that  convention,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
have  the  Legislature  pass  a  bill,  authorizing 
the  hiring  out  of  negroes  to  the  highest  bidder 
and,  if  they  should  then  prove  disobedient,  to 
have  them  sold  as  slaves.  As  passed,  it  ex 
tended  to  only  a  few  counties,43  and  was  not  to 
become  operative  there  until  approved  by 
popular  vote.  It  was  adopted  in  only  one 
county,  and  there  by  accident.44  Davis  con 
tended  that  the  judgment  of  the  people  of 
Maryland  concerning  the  free  negro  was  that 
"we  neither  will  expel  ourselves,  nor  encour 
age  to  go,  nor  allow  other  people  to  expel" 
them. 

The  emancipation  movement  in  Maryland 
wras  indebted  to  negro  enlistments.  At  first 
only  free  negroes  were  enlisted,  but  after 
Judge  Bond's  remonstrance  a  levy  was  made 
"from  the  slave  population,  in  order  that  the 
Union  men  might  have  the  free  colored  popu 
lation  to  hire,"  and  "every  slave  enlisted  was  a 
poor  white  man's  substitute."  The  recogni 
tion  of  that  fact,  more  than  anything  else, 
brought  over  "the  people  of  the  slaveholding 
counties  of  Maryland,  who  had  voted  at  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         275 

beck  of  the  slaveholders  for  generations,"  so 
that  Creswell  was  elected  over  Crisfield,  "a 
most  able  gentleman."  Davis  deprecated  ar 
guments  appealing  to  prejudice  or  to  hostility, 
and  urged  that  "the  great  politico-economic 
argument  should  be  permitted  to  prevail." 

Stern  in  his  loyalty,  Davis  rose  to  heights 
which  remind  one  of  Cicero's  orations  against 
Catiline,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House 
on  April  1 1,  when  a  resolution  was  being  con 
sidered  for  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Alexander 
Long,  of  Ohio.45  He  struck  to  the  heart  of  the 
matter,  and  maintained  that  the  question  at 
issue  was  whether,  as  a  legislator  sworn  to 
maintain  the  Constitution,  Mr.  Long  had 
shown  a  "determination  not  to  defend,  but  to 
yield  up  undefended  to  the  enemies  of  the 
United  States  what  he  was  sent  here  to  pro 
tect."  The  precedents  of  the  House  showed 
that  "words  may  prove  criminality"  and  may 
be  "visited  first  by  censure,  and,  if  they  judge 
it  necessary  to  the  public  safety,  by  expulsion 
from  the  House."  He  criticised  the  House 
for  recently  voting  that  Benjamin  G.  Harris, 
from  the  Fifth  Maryland  district,  was  an  "un 
worthy  member"  for  language  uttered  in  the 
House  which  designedly  tended  to  "give  aid 
and  encouragement  to  the  public  enemies  of 
the  nation,"  and  then  not  going  further  to  his 
expulsion.  Yet  the  censure  voted  on  that  oc- 


276       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

casion  showed  the  House's  punishment  of  the 
utterance  of  words.  Long  had  said  that  the 
only  alternatives  were:  the  "extermination  of 
the  enemies  of  the  United  States,"  or  the  "rec 
ognition  of  the  Southern  States  as  an  inde 
pendent  government."  In  this  view  he  agreed 
with  the  "rebel  chiefs,  and,  like  them,  he 
avowed  himself  for  recognition"  of  the  South 
ern  Confederacy,  which  meant  "the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  United  States." 

Having  thus  stated  the  case  in  "plain  lan 
guage,"  Davis  charged  Long  as  having  vio 
lated  "a  solemn  oath  and,  therefore,  not  to  be  a 
fit  depositary  of  his  constituents'  vote,  a  safe 
person  to  be  intrusted  here  with  the  secrets  of 
the  United  States,  a  worthy  guardian  of  the 
existence  of  the  republic."  In  1860  "the 
avowed  enemies  of  the  Republic"  left  the 
House.  "One  by  one,  as  their  stars  dropped 
from  the  firmament  of  the  Union,  they  went 
out,  some  with  tears  in  their  eyes  over  the 
miseries  they  were  about  to  inflict;  some  of 
them  with  exultation  over  the  coming  calam 
ity;  some  of  them  with  contemptuous  lectures 
to  the  members  in  the  House;  some  stayed  be 
hind  to  do  the  traitor's  business,  in  the  dis 
guise  of  honest  legislators  in  both  Houses,  as 
long  as  they  dared."  Davis  heaped  scorn  upon 
those  too  cowardly  to  avow  the  friendship 
they  really  felt  for  the  secessionist  cause  and 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         277 

preferred  an  "open  adversary."  He  did  not 
wish  to  restrict  free  speech,  but  claimed  that 
Long  was  arraigned,  "because  he  violates  the 
law  of  the  country  by  his  purpose  to  destroy 
it"  No  privilege  of  the  right  to  debate  should 
prevent  the  punishment  of  such  a  violation. 
Next  he  called  attention  to  the  moderation  of 
the  House,  and  asked  what  would  have  been 
the  fate  of  a  man  who  in  the  Confederate  Con 
gress,  the  French  National  Assembly,  or  the 
English  Parliament  in  1745,  should  have  made 
a  like  proposal  to  yield.  If  it  were  a  consti 
tutional  right  to  speak  thus,  in  spite  of  the  law, 
the  safety  of  the  people  would  require  Long's 
expulsion;  but  it  is  "within  the  limits  of  the 
written  law,  which  the  wisdom  of  our  fore 
fathers  gave  us,  so  to  act."  The  question  is 
one  "that  nobody  in  this  country  has  a  right  to 
be  on  more  than  one  side  of.  On  one  side  is 
patience,  duty  and  an  oath.  On  the  other  is 
treason,  crime  and  perjury."  Chatham's  ex 
ample  must  not  be  cited  against  Davis,  for  he 
entered  his  "dying  protest  against  the  recogni 
tion  of  American  independence."  Opinion  is 
"like  the  ocean,  whose  tides  rise  and  fall,  day 
by  day,  at  the  fickle  bidding  of  the  moon,  yet 
it  is  the  great  scientific  level  from  which  every 
height  is  measured — the  horizon  to  which  as 
tronomers  refer  the  motion  of  the  stars.  But, 
like  the  ocean,  it  has  depths,  whose  eternal 


278       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

stillness  is  the  condition  of  its  stability.  Those 
depths  of  opinion  are  not  free,  and  it  is  they 
that  are  touched  by  the  words  which  have  so 
moved  the  House."  Such  words  "break  up 
the  fountains  of  the  great  deep,  on  which  all 
government  is  borne,"  and  "pour  its  flood  in 
revolutionary  ruin  over  the  land."  To  punish 
them  is  not  aa  violation  of  freedom  of  opinion, 
but  is  a  protection  of  its  normal  ebb  and  flow." 
If  other  men  have  voiced  similar  expressions, 
that  fact  will  not  excuse  Long,  for  "their  guilt 
is  not  his  innocence,"  and  "if  their  guilt  is  be 
yond  my  judgment,"  Long's  guilt  is  not. 

He  then  attacked  the  Democratic  party  for 
having  "more  sympathy  with  the  enemies  of 
the  country  than  with  the  country  itself." 
Even  the  aid  of  the  war  Democrats  was  "more 
embarrassing  than  their  opposition."  If  that 
party  should  gain  control  of  the  nation,  then 
Davis  said,  in  a  long  and  eloquent  sentence,  it 
might  be  necessary  to  consider  recognition  of 
the  Confederacy. 

"When  the  people,  exhausted  by  taxation, 
weary  of  sacrifices,  drained  of  blood,  betrayed 
by  their  rulers,  deluded  by  demagogues  into 
believing  that  peace  is  the  way  to  union  and 
submission  to  victory,  shall  throw  down  their 
arms  before  the  advancing  foe,"  then  Con 
gress  "may,  without  treason  to  the  dead  re 
public,  declare  themselves  for  recognizing 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         279 

their  masters  at  the  South,  rather  than  exter 
minating  them.  Until  that  day,  in  the  name 
of  the  American  nation,  in  the  name  of  every 
house  in  the  land  where  there  is  one  dead  for 
the  holy  cause;  in  the  name  of  those  who  stand 
before  us  in  the  ranks  of  battle;  in  the  name  of 
the  liberty  our  ancestors  have  confided  to  us, 
I  devote  to  eternal  execration  the  name  of  him 
who  shall  propose  to  destroy  this  blessed  land 
rather  than  its  enemies."  The  people  had 
risen  to  the  "height  of  the  occasion,  dedicated 
this  generation  to  the  sword,"  and  as  a  result 
the  "banner  of  the  Republic,  still  pointing  on 
ward,  floats  proudly  in  the  face  of  the  enemy," 
while  "vast  regions  are  reduced  to  obedience 
to  the  laws"  and  a  "great  host,  in  armed  array, 
now  presses  with  steady  step  into  the  dark  re 
gions  of  the  rebellion."  Davis  believed  that 
the  "earnest  and  abiding  resolution  of  the  peo 
ple"  will  "save  us."  But  if,  "with  such  heroic 
resolve,  we  fall,  we  fall  with  honor  and  trans 
mit  the  name  of  liberty,  transmitted  to  our 
keeping,  untarnished."  This  eloquent  pero 
ration  was  greeted  with  deserved  applause,  for 
its  last  sentences  still  stir  one's  blood.  "If  we 
must  fall,  let  our  last  hours  be  stained  with  no 
weakness;  if  we  must  fall,  let  us  stand  amid 
the  crash  of  the  falling  republic  and  be  buried 
in  its  ruins,  so  that  history  may  take  note  that 
men  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


280       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tury  worthy  of  a  better  fate,  but  chastised  by 
God  for  the  sins  of  their  forefathers.  Let  the 
ruins  of  the  Republic  remain  to  testify  to  the 
latest  generations  our  greatness  and  our  hero 
ism.  And  let  Liberty,  crownless  and  child 
less,  sit  upon  these  ruins,  crying  aloud  with  a 
sad  wail  to  the  nations  of  the  world:  'I  nursed 
and  brought  up  children  and  they  have  re 
belled  against  me.' ' 

Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  had 
disliked  Davis  for  some  time  and  believed 
that  Davis  was  disappointed  because  he  had 
not  received  Welles's  portfolio.46  Because  of 
this  dislike,  Welles  asked  the  Speaker,  when 
the  latter  consulted  him,  not  to  place  Davis 
on  the  Naval  Committee.  Welles  admitted 
that  Davis  was  "one  of  the  most  talented  and 
ingenious  men  in  Congress,"  but  he  especially 
suspected  Davis,  because  he  had  been  the 
"friend  and  adviser"  for  some  time  of  Ad 
miral  Dupont,  between  whom  and  Welles  dif 
ficulties  had  arisen.47  Dupont  had  asked  to  be 
transferred  to  Washington,  and  Davis  sug 
gested  this  transfer  to  Seward,  who  approved 
it,  but  Welles  and  Lincoln  declined  to  make 
the  transfer.48  On  February  25,  when  the 
Navy  Appropriation  bill  was  under  discus 
sion  in  the  House,  Davis  made  an  attack  upon 
the  management  of  the  department  and  asked 
an  investigation  of  it,  while  he  eulogized  Du- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         281 

pont.49  Davis  referred  to  the  naval  attack 
upon  Charleston  "as  brilliant  and  as  insane  as 
Balaclava,"  and  continued  that  "it  was  not  a 
naval  expedition,  undertaken  on  the  judgment 
of  naval  officers  or  advised  by  the  officer  in 
command  charged  with  its  execution,  but  was 
devised  in  the  department,  without  consulting 
him.  If  there  is  shame,  it  is  because  the  de 
partment  thought  a  cotton-spinner  was  better 
than  an  admiral  to  plan  it."  The  ablest  offi 
cer  in  the  Navy  thought  that  the  attack  must 
be  a  combined  one  in  order  to  be  successful. 
Admiral  Dupont  was  brave.50  The  Navy  De 
partment  met  him  with  slurs  and  insults. 
Sumter  is  now  a  heap  of  ruins,  but  Charleston 
does  not  fall.  The  "men  in  control  of  the 
Navy  Department  keep  in  retirement  the  most 
brilliant  officer  since  Decatur,  because  the 
department's  crude  experiment  failed  and  it 
was  advisable  that  the  department  should  not 
appear  at  fault."  51 

Interested  in  judicial  matters,52  Davis  was 
willing  to  exclude  cases  of  tort  from  the  juris 
diction  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  but  was  un 
willing  that  a  mere  administrative  officer,  by 
administrative  action,  should  conclude  claims53 
against  the  Government,  and  held  that  that 
court's  jurisdiction  extended  to  all  cases  of 
contract.  When  the  National  Currency  bill 
was  being  discussed,  Davis 54  objected  to  driv- 


282       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ing  the  Bank  of  Commerce  out  of  business, 
because  of  a  provision  in  its  articles  of  asso 
ciation  as  to  personal  liability  of  stockhold 
ers.55  State  banks,  he  maintained,  must,  on 
the  other  hand,  be  driven  from  existence,  or 
there  would  be  a  "plethora  of  currency"  and 
a  consequent  "desolating  revulsion"  like  that 
of  i837.56  He  opposed  taxation  of  national 
banks  by  the  States,  "as  placing  the  existence 
of  these  corporations  at  their  mercy."  It  was 
a  "question  between  the  sovereign  power  of 
the  United  States  and  the  necessities  of  the 
machinery  it  creates,"  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
necessities  of  the  States  that  desire  to  tax 
them,"  on  the  other.57 

From  the  Committee  on  Rules 58  he  reported 
an  order,  which  was  passed,  that  the  names  of 
members  present,  but  not  voting  on  any  pro 
posal,  shall  be  recorded  on  the  Journal  imme 
diately  after  the  yeas  and  nays.59 

Davis  felt  that  he  was  "charged  simply  with 
the  interests  of  the  United  States,  and,  in 
subordination  to  the  interests  of  the  United 
States,  the  interests  of  my  district."  60  Follow 
ing  the  "paramount  interest  of  the  country,"  he 
voted  to  censure  and  to  expel  his  fellow-repre 
sentative  from  Maryland,  B.  G.  Harris,  for 
disloyalty.61 

When  a  Missouri  election  case  was  before 
the  House,62  Dawes  intimated  that  the  decision 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         283 

of  the  case  might  have  an  effect  upon  the  pros 
pects  of  the  Administration  in  the  coming 
election.  Davis  then  asked  him  whether  that 
was  a  proper  consideration.  Dawes,  without 
answering,  charged  Davis  with  "midnight 
cabals"  and  responsibility  for  disorder  at  the 
Baltimore  elections,  and  for  dens, where  voters 
were  cooped  up  and  "from  which  Plug  Uglys 
go  forth."  Davis  waited  for  three  days  and 
then  replied  in  a  spirited  address.63  In  this 
apologia  pro  vita  sua,  he  began  by  stating  that 
an  election  case  is  not  a  personal  contest  be 
tween  the  sitting  member  and  the  claimant, 
but  is  a  question  relating  to  the  rights  of  the 
people  represented.  "Is  either  of  the  parties 
claiming  the  seat  entitled  to  speak  here  for 
the  people  of  the  district?  That  question  can 
only  be  presented  in  two  aspects.  First,  was 
there  a  valid  election  at  all  and  anywhere  in 
the  district,  and,  secondly,  if  there  was  a  valid 
election,  which  of  the  two  parties  had  a  ma 
jority."  To  declare  an  election  void  at  one 
poll  "is  not  an  avoidance  of  the  election,  unless 
the  election  was  centered  at  one  poll,  where 
an  overbearing  force  was  present,  with  men 
ace  and  violence  such  as  would  deter  a  man 
of  ordinary  firmness  from  approaching  the 
polls  and  tendering  his  vote."  Davis  main 
tained  that  the  "prevalence  of  rumors,  or 
threats,  or  intimidations  before  the  day  of  elec- 


284       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tion,  or  elsewhere  than  at  the  polls,  or  in  gain 
ing  access  to  them,  is  no  consideration  at  all 
relevant  to  the  validity  of  the  election."  In 
the  Missouri  case  fifteen  counties  were  includ 
ed  in  the  district,  and  there  was  no  pretence  of 
violence,  except  as  to  five  of  these,  while  there 
was  no  violence  that  could  intimidate  in  one- 
tenth  of  the  precincts  in  those  counties.  "Fear 
of  use  of  force  by  legal  means"  is  no  reason 
for  annulling  an  election;  consequently,  there 
should  be  no  complaint  of  the  presence  of  mi 
litia  at  the  polls.  They  are  there  for  protec 
tion.  If  a  person  is  arrested  by  them,  he  may 
complain  to  the  proper  authorities. 

He  turned  next  to  the  attack  made  on  him 
by  Dawes.  Massachusetts  and  Maryland  must 
have  the  same  law.  It  was  a  "most  unkind 
and  unexpected  occurrence  that  a  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  should  rise,  after  the  great 
struggle  for  freedom  in  the  loyal  slave  States 
of  the  Union,  when  triumph  has  perched  on 
their  banners,  and  reproach  them  with  the 
dust  and  sweat  of  the  conflict,  rather  than 
swell  the  chorus  of  exultation."  Dawes  op 
posed  the  use  of  military  elections;  but  when 
the  troops  were  used  in  the  "massacre"  at  the 
Washington  City  election  of  1857,  the  Repub 
licans  were  silent,  for  they  did  not  care  "to 
soil  themselves  by  defending  Know  Noth 
ings."  Yet  "all  who  are  against  the  common 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         285 

enemy  are  for  the  Republic."  The  Demo 
crats,  when  they  oppose  the  use  of  troops  at 
the  polls,  should  remember  the  transactions  in 
Kansas.  Although  Maryland  elections  had 
often  been  attacked,  Davis  had  "sat  with  con 
temptuous  silence  in  this  House  for  six  years, 
scorning  to  notice  railing  accusations"  made 
elsewhere.  "No  man  ever  dared,  in  my  pres 
ence,"  he  continued,  "to  impeach  my  con 
duct."  Only  after  his  third  election  did  the 
opposition  contest  his  seat.  He  had  easily  won 
that  contest,  and  Dawes  had  then  voted  that 
Davis  retain  his  seat.  "No  elections  have 
anywhere  occurred  of  more  national  import 
ance  or  which  reflected  more  honor  upon  the 
indomitable  spirit  and  determination  of  the 
people  to  vindicate  their  rights  at  every  haz 
ard,  than  the  elections  in  which  I  was  a  candi 
date."  As  he  had  been  attacked  on  the  floor 
of  the  House,  on  that  floor  he  now  defended 
his  conduct  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
The  American  party  was  "organized  to  rescue 
the  public  school  from  Democratic  and  sec 
tarian  conspiracy,  and  first  met  and  broke  the 
power  of  the  Democratic  domination"  of  the 
country.  The  Republican  party  "encountered 
its  fragments,  when  its  sceptre  was  already 
wrested  from  its  hands."  Davis  had  risen  to 
"vindicate"  the  memory  of  the  American  par 
ty  and  "claim  its  true  place  in  history."  He 


a86       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

rehearsed  the  Maryland  campaigns  from  1855 
to  1859,  m  which  latter  year  John  Brown's 
raid  caused  such  alarm  that  the  Democrats 
carried  the  State.  The  persons  whom  Dawes 
sneered  at  as  Plug  Uglys  were  as  "respectable 
as  the  most  respectable  of  his  constituents.  It 
is  the  heart  of  the  American  mechanics  that 
he  thus  slights.  Many  of  them  now  sleep  in 
soldiers'  graves.  They  constituted  in  great 
part  the  famous  First  Maryland  Regiment, 
which,  under  the  heroic  Kenly,  arrested  with 
their  bayonets  for  hours  ten  times  their  num 
ber  of  rebel  cavalry  at  Front  Royal  and  never 
yielded  till  they  were  literally  ridden  down 
and  destroyed,  that  they  might  give  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Banks  time  to  save  his  army.  They 
formed  the  great,  silent,  irresistible  power 
which  palsied  the  traitors  who,  on  and  after 
the  1 9th  of  April,  vainly  strove  to  tear  Mary 
land  from  the  Union."  He  closed  by  vindi 
cating  the  Administration  and  saying,  "while 
we  have  the  power,  we  will  enforce  the  Con 
stitution  as  we  think  right."  K 

Without  consulting  his  Cabinet,66  Lincoln 
issued  a  proclamation  on  July  9  upon  the  sub 
ject  of  the  Davis-Wade  bill.  He  thought 
that  measure  "too  rigid  and  too  restrictive," 
and  that  it  were  better  to  have  "no  fixed  and 
formal  method"  of  reconstruction  and  to  be 
tied  to  "no  single  plan  of  restoration."  He  was 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         287 

not  willing  to  declare  that  the  governments  of 
Louisiana  and  Arkansas  should  be  "set  aside 
and  held  for  naught,"  and  he  hoped  for  a  con 
stitutional  amendment  that  would  abolish 
slavery.  Yet  he  was  satisfied  that  the  system 
contained  in  the  bill  was  "one  very  proper,  for 
the  loyal  people  of  any  State  choosing  to  adopt 
it,"  and  he  was  willing  to  appoint  military 
Governors,  "with  directions  to  proceed  ac 
cording  to  the  bill,"  in  States  where  military 
resistance  was  suppressed  and  the  people  had 
sufficiently  returned  to  obedience  to  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  laws. 

The  struggle  between  Congress  and  the 
President  as  to  the  right  to  reconstruct  the 
Southern  States  thus  began,  and  continued 
with  increasing  acrimony  until  finally  a  vic 
tory  in  fact  was  won  by  Congress  under  the 
Presidency  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Long  years 
afterwards  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  supported  Davis's  position  as  the  legal 
one,  saying  that  it  is  a  "legislative  duty  to  de 
termine  the  politcal  questions  involved  in  de 
ciding  whether  a  State  government  in  form  ex 
ists."  67a 

Chase  was  very  angry  at  the  issuance  of  Lin 
coln's  proclamation,  and  years  later  E.  L. 
Pierce,  writing  Sumner's  biography68  said  that 
"no  part  of  the  President's  entire  official 
course  was  so  open  to  exception  as  that  which 


288       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

he  pursued  on  this  subject  of  reconstruction, 
where  he  seemed  to  assert  power  for  himself, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  and  of  Congress."  Lincoln's  biogra 
phers  are  correct,  however,  in  writing69  that 
the  "great  mass  of  voters  accepted  Lincoln's 
proclamation  as  the  wisest  and  most  practi 
cable  method." 

After  Lincoln's  proclamation  had  been  is 
sued,  Davis  sat  down  to  prepare  a  public  reply. 
Congress  would  not  meet  for  several  months, 
and  he  felt  that  an  earlier  answer  should  be 
made.  When  he  had  finished  it,  he  read  it  to 
his  friend  and  admirer,  John  T.  Graham,  who 
was  to  copy  it  out  fair  for  publication.  Gra 
ham  was  so  thrilled  with  it  that  he  said :  "Mr. 
Davis,  don't  show  what  you  have  written  to 
anyone  else,  but  send  it  just  as  you  have  writ 
ten  it,"  fearing  that  if  other  Republican  lead 
ers  in  Maryland,  such  as  Archibald  Stirling, 
Esq.,  or  Judge  Hugh  Lennox  Bond,  saw  the 
document,  they  would  soften  and  modify  its 
expressions.  Davis  yielded  to  Mr.  Graham's 
persuasion,  and  the  document  was  sent  to  Sen 
ator  Benjamin  F.  Wade  just  as  Davis  had 
written70  it.  Davis's  act  has  been  viewed  as 
an  "intemperate  arraignment,"  which  really 
strengthened  Lincoln's  position,71  although  it 
was  not  surprising  that  "men  of  so  much  intel 
ligence,  courage  and  tenacity"  as  Davis  and 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         289 

Wade  would  not  permit  so  bold  an  act  as  Lin 
coln's  proclamation  to  be  issued,  while  they 
were  silent. 

Davis's  best  friends  may  well  wish  that  he 
had  left  the  manifesto  unwritten.  With  the 
most  exalted  purpose,  and  with  a  fundamen 
tally  correct  constitutional  position,  he  pre 
pared  a  document,  whose  fierce  attack  on  the 
President  could  do  no  good,  and  which  (save 
for  the  fact  that  it  was  boldly  published)  re 
minds  one  in  many  particulars  of  Hamilton's 
equally  unwise  attack  on  Adams  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1800.  The  argument  of  the  mani 
festo,  addressed  to  "the  supporters  of  the  Gov 
ernment"  is  that  of  Davis's  congressional 
speeches  upon  the  bill  for  the  reorganization 
of  the  seceded  States  and  is  cogent.  The  os 
tensible  reason  for  the  document  was  that 
Davis  and  Wade,  having  read  "without  sur 
prise,  but  not  without  indignation,  the  procla 
mation  of  the  President,"  felt  that  they  ought 
not  to  pass  it  in  silence,  but  ought  to  endeavor 
"to  check  the  encroachments  of  the  executive 
on  the  authority  of  Congress  and  to  require 
it  to  confine  itself  to  its  proper  sphere."  With 
words  of  extreme  condemnation,  they  declare 
that,  so  far  as  Lincoln's  proclamation  "con 
tains  an  apology  for  not  signing  the  bill,  it  is 
a  political  manifesto  against  the  friends  of  the 
Government.  So  far  as  it  proposes  to  execute 

19 


290       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  bill,  which  is  not  a  law,  it  is  a  grave  execu 
tive  usurpation."  Lincoln  had  called  atten 
tion  in  the  proclamation  to  the  fact  that  the 
bill  was  presented  to  him,  just  before  the  ad 
journment  of  Congress,  and  Davis  properly 
exposed  this  subterfuge  by  showing  that  the 
bill  had  been  so  fully  discussed  for  so  long  a 
time  that  "ignorance  of  its  contents  is  out  of 
the  question."  The  provisions  of  the  bill  did 
not  "take  the  President  by  surprise."  The 
evidence  rather  tended  to  show  that  Lincoln 
had  determined  not  to  sign  the  bill,  long  be 
fore  it  passed  the  Senate.  Davis  also  empha 
sized  the  danger  of  permitting  the  President's 
"wisdom  and  prudence"  to  be  "our  sufficient 
guarantees,"  in  so  important  a  matter  as  the 
treatment  of  the  rebel  States.  Lincoln  had 
upheld,  in  his  proclamation,  "those  shadows 
of  governments  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana 
which  Congress  formally  declared  should  not 
be  recognized,  by  repelling  the  representatives 
and  Senators  from  these  States  and  by  refusing 
them  an  electoral  vote."  Davis  condemned 
these  "mere  oligarchies,  imposed  upon  the 
people  by  military  orders  under  the  forms  of 
election,"  and  maintained  that  Lincoln,  "by 
preventing  this  bill  from  becoming  a  law, 
holds  the  electoral  votes  of  the  rebel  States  at 
the  dictation  of  his  personal  ambition."  Not 
only  so,  but  the  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Rhode 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         291 

Island  case,  had  established  the  correctness  of 
the  doctrine  that  the  "judgment  of  Congress, 
which  the  President  defied,  was  the  exercise  of 
an  authority  exclusively  invested  in  Congress 
by  the  Constitution."  Under  the  Constitu 
tion,  the  right  to  Senators  and  Representatives 
is  "inseparable  from  a  State  government.  If 
there  be  a  State  government,  the  right  is  abso 
lute.  The  two  Houses  of  Congress  are  ex 
pressly  declared  to  be  the  sole  judges  of  their 
own  members.  When,  therefore,  Senators 
and  Representatives  are  admitted,  the  State 
government,  under  whose  authority  they  were 
chosen,  is  conclusively  established;  when  they 
are  rejected,  its  existence  is  as  conclusively  re 
jected  and  denied.  And  to  this  judgment,  the 
President  is  bound  to  submit." 

Lincoln  had  said  that  he  was  unwilling  to 
"declare  a  constitutional  competency  in  Con 
gress  to  abolish  slavery  in  States,"  but  the  bill 
only  referred  to  rebel  States,  where  Lincoln 
had  already  emancipated  "much  the  larger 
number  of  slaves."  Davis  insisted  that  the 
President  can  not  have  "more  discretion  in  this 
matter  than  Congress  had.  Indeed,  except  as 
to  a  small  part  of  Louisiana  and  Virginia,  the 
bill  "added  a  congressional  title  and  judicial 
remedies  by  law  to  the  disputed  title  under  the 
proclamation  and  perfected  the  work"  of 
Lincoln.  Slavery  in  the  States  can  be  abol- 


292       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ished  only  by  their  constitutions  and  the  bill 
provided  that  the  new  State  constitutions  must 
contain  a  provision  for  manumission. 

Davis's  wrath  knew  no  bounds  at  Lincoln's 
proposal  to  execute  the  bill  as  a  law,  by  his 
"plenary  dictatorial  power,"  than  which  state 
ment,  he  cried  out,  "a  more  studied  outrage  on 
the  legislative  authority  of  the  people  has 
never  been  perpetrated."  He  particularly  ob 
jected  to  the  appointment  of  provisional  mili 
tary  governors,  instead  of  civil  ones,  as  the  bill 
provided,  and  to  the  procedure,  by  "persons  re 
sponsible  to  no  law  and  more  intrusted  to  se 
cure  the  interests  and  execute  the  will  of  the 
President  than  of  the  people."  He  objected 
to  the  rebel  States  being  allowed  to  take  the 
easy  way  of  following  the  requirements  of  the 
President's  proclamation  of  December  8, 
which  failed  to  give  the  needed  "guarantees 
of  future  peace"  or  to  "protect  the  loyal  men 
of  the  nation  against  three  great  dangers:  i. 
The  return  to  power  of  the  guilty  leaders  of 
the  rebellion.  2.  The  continuance  of  slavery, 
and  3,  the  burden  of  the  rebel  debt."  The 
failure  to  sign  the  bill  was  a  "rash  and  fatal 
act,"  a  "blow  at  the  friends"  of  Lincoln's  "ad 
ministration,  at  the  rights  of  humanity,  and  at 
the  principles  of  Republican  Government." 
He  had  presumedonmen's  forbearance.  Davis 
and  Wade  supported  a  cause,  not  a  man,  and 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         293 

insisted  that  the  "authority  of  Congress  is  par 
amount,"  and  to  that  authority  Lincoln  must 
"leave  political  reorganization."  The  mani 
festo  ends  with  the  ringing  call  to  the  "sup 
porters  of  the  Government"  to  "consider  the 
remedy  for  these  usurpations,  and,  having 
found,  fearlessly  execute  it."  The  manifesto 
caused  Davis  to  be  defeated  by  Gen.  Charles 
E.  Phelps  in  October  for  the  Congressional 
nomination,  but  was  characteristic  of  a  man, 
who  "always  boldly  avowed  his  opinions  and 
assumed  their  full  responsibility."72 

When  the  manifesto  appeared  on  August  8, 
Welles  asked  Lincoln  what  he  thought  of  it, 
and  was  told  that  he  had  not  read  it  and  prob 
ably  should  not  read  it.  "From  what  was 
said  of  it,  he  had  no  desire  to"  do  so,  and 
"could  himself  take  no  part  in  such  a  contro 
versy  as  they  seemed  to  wish  to  provoke." 
Welles  added,  "perhaps  he  is  right,  provided 
he  has  some  judicious  friend  to  state  to  him 
what  there  is  really  substantial  in  the  protest 
entitled  to  consideration,  without  the  vitupera 
tive  asperity."  Lincoln  was  content  to  let  his 
opponents  "wriggle,"  n  but  thought  it  strange 
that  Greeley  would  publish  the  manifesto  in 
the  Tribune,  a  paper  which  had  favored  the 
administration.  The  publication  of  the  mani 
festo  caused  Welles  to  indite  a  more  atrabili 
ous  passage  than  usual  in  his  diary:  "The  pro- 


294       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

test  is  violent  and  abusive  of  the  President, 
who  is  denounced  with  malignity,  for  what  I 
deem  the  wise  and  prudent  omission  to  sign  a 
law.  There  are  many  offensive  features  in 
the  law,  which  is  in  itself  an  usurpation  and 
abuse  of  authority.  How,  or  in  what  way  or 
ways,  the  several  States  are  to  put  themselves 
right,  and  retrieve  their  position  is  in  the  fu 
ture  and  cannot  well  be  specified.  There  must 
be  latitude  and  not  a  stiff  and  a  too  stringent 
policy  pursued  in  this  respect  by  either  the 
Executive  or  Congress."  Looking  for  low 
motives,  Welles  found  that  "in  getting  up  this 
law  it  was  as  much  an  object  of  Mr.  Winter 
Davis  and  some  others  to  pull  down  the  ad 
ministration  as  to  reconstruct  the  Union.  I 
think  they  had  the  former  more  directly  in 
view  than  the  latter.  Davis's  conduct  is  not 
surprising,"  but  Wade  should  not  have  lent 
himself  to  "such  a  despicable  assault."  Davis 
seemed  to  Welles  to  be  the  ringleader  who  had 
drawn  in  Colfax  and  they  had  flattered  Wade 
to  do  a  foolish  act.  Venting  the  vials  of  his 
wrath  on  Davis,  Welles  wrote  of  him  as  a  man 
who  "had  a  good  deal  of  talent,  but  is  rash 
and  uncertain.  There  is  scarcely  a  more  am 
bitious  man  and  one  that  can  not  be  more  safe 
ly  trusted.  He  is  impulsive  and  mad  and  has 
been  acute  and  contriving  in  this  whole  meas 
ure."  He  is  "not  controlled  by  earnest  zeal," 
but  is  "ambitious  and  malignant." 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         295 

Nicolay  and  Hay75  are  hardly  less  severe. 
From  the  "grim  beginning"  of  the  manifesto 
until  the  end,  it  was  the  "most  vigorous  attack 
that  was  ever  directed  against  the  President  by 
one  of  his  own  party  during  his  term."  It 
"insinuated  that  only  the  lowest  personal  mo 
tives  could  have  dictated"  Lincoln's  action, 
while  it  also  "ridiculed  Lincoln's  earnestly 
expressed  hope  for  constitutional  amendment." 
Every  sentence  of  Lincoln's  proclamation 
"came  in  for  its  share  of  censure  or  ridicule." 

A  less  partisan  critic  76  wrote  that,  notwith 
standing  the  necessity  for  harmony  among 
those  desiring  to  put  down  the  rebellion,  after 
the  issuance  of  Lincoln's  proclamation,  "two 
of  the  boldest  leaders,  disregarding  every  con 
sideration  of  prudence,  arraigned  the  Presi 
dent,  in  language  which,  for  severity,  was 
never  surpassed  by  the  invectives  of  his  ablest 
political  opponents.  In  the  entire  experience 
of  the  Republic,  no  executive  had  ever  as 
sumed  to  reject  those  provisions  in  a  legisla 
tive  measure  which  he  disliked  and  adopt  those 
that  were  acceptable.  This  is  precisely  what 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  and  the  reasons  for  his  action 
he  declared  to  the  people  with  a  confidence" 
like  Jackson's.77  Davis's  ardent  admirer, 
Elaine,  writing  twenty  years  later,  said  that, 
while  the  Congress  almost  unanimously  dis 
sented  from  Lincoln's  "extraordinary"  course 


296       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

in  issuing  his  proclamation,  they  had  gone 
home  and  found  the  people  united  in  his  sup 
port.  "Two  of  the  ablest,  most  fearless,  most 
resolute  men  then  in  public  life"  were  excep 
tions  and  they  sent  forth  the  manifesto,  "able, 
caustic  and  unqualified."  "The  protest  closed 
with  the  language  of  stern  admonition,  if  not 
indeed  of  absolute  menace,"  but  it  was  "a 
brutum  fulmen  with  no  visible  political  re 
sult,"  save  the  defeat  of  Davis,  when  a  candi 
date  for  renomination  to  Congress.  "The 
very  strength"  of  the  paper  was  its  "special 
weakness.  It  was  so  powerful  an  arraignment 
of  the  President  that,  of  necessity,  it  rallied 
his  friends  to  his  support  with  that  intense 
form  of  energywhich  springs  from  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation."  Elaine  is  probably  cor 
rect  in  adding  that,  even  if  the  President  were 
in  error,  it  were  better  to  follow  him  than  to 
have  dissension  and  division,  and  that  men  pre 
ferred  to  follow  Lincoln,  who  had  all  the 
power,  rather  than  Davis  and  Wade,  who  had 
none.79  In  spite  of  the  "solicitations  of  most  of 
his  personal  friends  in  Maryland,"  Lincoln 
refused  to  "discriminate  against  the  faction 
headed  by  Mr.  Davis  in  making  appointments 
to  office  in  that  State"  and  when,  during  this 
important  campaign,  a  deputation  of  promi 
nent  supporters  of  the  administration  in  Mary 
land  came  to  Washington  to  denounce  Mr. 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         297 

Davis  for  his  outspoken  hostility  to  the  Presi 
dent,  saying  such  a  course,  if  it  continued, 
would  lose  Mr.  Lincoln  the  electoral  vote  of 
the  State,  he  replied:  "I  understand  that  Mr, 
Davis  is  doing  all  in  his  power  to  secure  the 
success  of  the  emancipation  ticket  in  Mary 
land.  If  he  does  this,  I  care  nothing  about 
the  electoral  vote.''80 

Lincoln's  words  might  have  been  even 
stronger.  When  Creswell  pronounced  his 
eulogy  on  Davis,  he  said  "his  crowning  glory 
was  the  leadership  of  the  emancipation  move 
ment"  in  Maryland.81  The  Confederates  had 
talked  of  delivering  the  State  from  the  "ty 
rant's  heel"  which  was  upon  its  neck,  but 
Davis  set  about  the  task  of  breaking  the  last 
tie  which  bound  Maryland  to  the  other  slave 
States  by  destroying  slavery  and  thus  placed 
the  State  "unalterably  on  the  side  of  the  Union 
and  freedom."  Gathering  Creswell,  Gushing 
and  a  few  others,  he  organized  his  "little  band, 
almost  ridiculous  from  its  want  of  numbers, 
early  in  1863."  Enemies  laughed  them  to 
scorn,  but  Davis  led  them  to  success  through 
a  contest,  in  whose  "heat  and  fury,"  the  hearts 
of  his  associates  were  "welded  into  permanent 
friendship"  with  him.  He  announced  their 
platform  in  a  few  comprehensive  words,  de 
claring  that  they  stood  for  "a  hearty  support 
of  the  entire  policy  of  the  national  adminis- 


298       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

tration,  including  immediate  emancipation  by 
constitutional  means."  He  opened  the  cam 
paign,  by  publishing  an  address  of  some  twen 
ty  pages  to  the  people  of  the  State,  which 
pamphlet  Creswell  characterized  as  notable 
"for  the  warmth  and  vigor  of  its  diction  and 
the  lucidity  and  conclusiveness  of  its  argumen 
tation."  He  closed  his  message  with  this 
hopeful  sentence:  "We  do  not  doubt  the  result 
and  expect,  freed  from  the  trammels  which 
now  bind  her,  to  see  Maryland,  at  no  distant 
day,  rapidly  advancing  in  a  course  of  unex 
ampled  prosperity  with  her  sister  free  States 
of  the  undivided  and  indivisible  republic." 

In  the  campaign,  Creswell  continued:  "Mr. 
Davis  was  ubiquitous.  He  arranged  the  or 
der  of  battle,  dictated  the  correspondence, 
wrote  the  important  articles  for  the  newspa 
pers,  and  addressed  all  the  concerted  meetings. 
In  short,  neither  his  voice  nor  his  pen  rested 
in  all  the  time  of  our  travail.  He  would  have 
no  compromise,  but  rejected  all  overtures  ot 
the  enemy  short  of  unconditional  surrender. 
On  the  Eastern  Shore,  he  spoke  with  irresisti 
ble  power  at  Elkton,  Easton,  Salisbury  and 
Snow  Hill,  at  each  of  the  three  last  named 
towns  with  a  crowd  of  wondering  "American 
citizens  of  African  descent"  listening  to  him 
from  afar,  and  looking  upon  him  as  if  they 
believed  him  to  be  the  seraph  Abdiel.  His 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         299 

last  appointment,  in  extreme  Southern  Mary 
land,  he  filled  on  Friday,  after  which,  bidding 
me  a  cordial  God-speed,  he  descended  from 
the  stand,  sprang  into  an  open  wagon  awaiting 
him,  travelled  80  miles  through  a  raw  night 
air,  reached  Cambridge  by  daylight  and  then 
crossed  the  Chesapeake  60  miles,  in  time  to 
close  the  campaign  with  one  of  his  ringing 
speeches  in  Monument  Square,  Baltimore,  on 
Saturday  night." 

Victorious  in  the  election  of  1863,  he  then 
"allowed  himself  no  reprieve  from  labor,"  un 
til  the  Legislature  had  called  a  constitutional 
convention,  and  had  voted  to  adopt  the  Con 
stitution  abolishing  slavery,  which  that  con 
vention,  had  framed.  Then  he  went  before 
the  Court  of  Appeals  successfully  to  maintain 
the  validity  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  "drew  extraordinary  encomiums,  even 
from  his  opponents  in  that  angry  litigation."8 

It  is,  therefore,  easily  to  be  seen  that  during 
1864,  Davis  took  a  very  prominent  part  in 
events  in  Maryland.  In  pursuance  of  a  call 
by  the  Unconditional  Union  State  Central 
Committee,  he  addressed  a  meeting  in  the 
Maryland  Institute  in  Baltimore  on  April  i.83 
He  began,  by  asserting  that  the  election  of  the 
previous  autumn  had  shown  that  the  people  of 
the  State  wished  that  Maryland  "be  put  upon 
the  same  basis  of  free  institutions,  which  have 


300       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

wrought  such  miracles  of  prosperity  among 
our  Northern  sisters."  The  Governor  and 
the  Legislature  had  been  unfriendly,  but  the 
Assembly  "did  not  dare  adjourn  without  pass 
ing"  the  bill  to  submit  to  the  people  the  ques 
tion  of  calling  a  Constitutional  convention. 
Two  sets  of  delegates  were  nominated  for  elec 
tion  to  that  Convention,  and  Davis  strongly 
urged  the  election  of  those  men  who  were 
pledged  to  vote  for  emancipation.  "The  slav 
ery  interest"  was  struggling  "vigorously  to 
maintain  its  domination."  It  had  been  hither 
to  master  of  the  whole  State,  through  the  "rot 
ten  borough  counties  of  Southern  Maryland 
and  the  Eastern  Shore,"  who  "have  used  their 
power  to  take  to  themselves  the  lion's  share  of 
our  political  honor  and  to  cast  upon  you  the 
ass's  share  of  every  political  burden."  Taxa 
tion  had  been  unevenly  imposed.  One-fourth 
of  the  white  population  had  held  one-half  of 
the  political  power.  The  first  fruit  of  the 
"breaking  down"  of  slavery  should  be  to  re 
distribute  political  power  and  to  "reassert  the 
right  of  numbers"  in  Maryland.  The  slavery 
men  were  trying  to  discourage  men  from  vot 
ing  for  a  convention,  on  the  ground  that  it 
might  vote  to  compensate  slaveholders  for 
freedom.  Davis  ridiculed  this  fear.  The 
slaveholding  counties  elected  only  half  the 
convention.  Any  "ordinance  they  may  pass 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         301 

as  part  of  the  Constitution  has  to  be  submitted 
to  the  vote  of  the  people  for  their  sanction 
and  the  vote  of  the  City  of  Baltimore  alone 
will  defeat  any  bill  for  compensation."  Cres- 
well's  victory,  in  "the  Africa  of  the  Eastern 
Shore,"  proved  that  some,  even  of  the  slave- 
holding  counties,  would  vote  for  emancipa 
tion.  Davis's  experience  in  the  Eastern  Shore 
campaign,  had  taught  him  that  the  poorer 
classes,  who,  "for  three  generations,  had  been 
voting  at  the  dictation  of  the  leading  gentle 
men  of  their  regions,"  had  now  "cast  their 
first  independent  vote,  for  their  own  freedom 
first  and  the  freedom  of  the  negro  afterward." 
Crisfield,  "the  ablest  man  of  the  Eastern 
Shore,  a  gentleman  of  large  property,  a  large 
negro-holder,  with  a  national  reputation, 
leaning  to  the  Copperhead  style  of  politics, 
intensely  conservative,"  was  beaten  by  Cres- 
well,  who  argued  that  the  time  for  emanci 
pation  was  come.  Not  only  so,  but  the 
Maryland  Legislature  had  excluded  secession 
ists  from  voting  at  the  next  election,  holding 
"that  men  who  are  traitors  to  the  country  have 
no  part  in  our  political  community."  The 
opponents  alleged  that  the  advocates  of  the 
Convention  favored  giving  to  the  negro 
"equality"  and,  for  that  allegation,  Davis  un 
mercifully  ridiculed  them  and  denied  the 
charge.  The  slave-holders  deserved  no  com- 


302       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

pensation,  because  they  had  failed  to  pay  fair 
taxes  on  slave  property.  For  forty  years,  they 
had  been  "plunderers  of  the  public  purse  for 
their  private  benefit."  They  had  also  spurned 
the  "only  chance  they  ever  had  of  receiving 
anything  as  a  ransom  for  their  slaves,"  by  re 
jecting  all  overtures  from  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  in  the  early  months  of  the  war.  "Be 
tween  them  and  compensation,  the  great  gulf 
is  fixed."  The  President's  proposal  of  com 
pensation  was  "intended  to  promote  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion,"  to  "save  a  thousand 
millions  of  dollars"  and  a  "year  of  anarchy 
and  bloodshed.  The  year  had  gone.  The 
thousand  millions  of  dollars  are  sunk  in  the 
ruts  of  our  artillery  in  the  South.  The  blood 
is  shed.  The  blood  that  pays  the  ransom  of 
the  negro  is  poured  out  and  the  money  of  the 
Government  went  with  it,"  so  that  those  who 
refused  the  offer,  may  now  "eat  the  bitter 
fruits  of  their  folly." 

The  slaveholders  had  no  longer  a  claim  upon 
the  Federal  Government  for  compensation, 
since  the  "United  States  never  granted  them 
slave  property."  If  the  State  enfranchise  the 
slaves,  the  loss  to  the  owners  is  analogous  to 
that  occasioned  by  a  change  in  the  tariff,  which 
Davis  had  seen  destroy  "values  infinitely 
greater  than  the  value  of  the  slave  property  of 
Maryland,"  without  any  one  proposing  to 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         303 

"compensate  the  broken  manufacturers  of 
Massachusetts  and  the  iron  dealers  of  Pennsyl 
vania  or  Maryland." 

"Negroes  are  no  more  property  by  the  law 
of  nature  than  white  men."  The  slaveholders 
had  their  compensation,  by  "robbing  the  State 
Treasury  of  the  taxes"  upon  the  slaves'  "real 
value;"  by  the  "improved  value  of  their 
lands,"  especially  in  "Southern  Maryland, 
where  everything  that  smiles  and  blossoms  is 
the  work  of  the  negro  that  they  tore  from 
Africa;"  and  by  "four  generations  of  uncom- 
pensated  labor."  No  political  party  would 
dare  to  go  into  a  canvass  and  advocate  doub 
ling  the  war  debt  by  compensating  owners  for 
their  slaves.  "There  is  scarcely  a  household 
where  there  is  not  one  dead,"  continued  Davis 
eloquently,  "there  is  scarcely  a  household 
where  children  are  not  lacking  for  some  of 
the  comforts  of  life,  by  reason  of  this  great 
war,  and  their  wants  must  not  be  increased  to 
give  luxuries  to  the  rich  slaveholders.  The 
negro  is  paid  for  by  the  hardships  that  men 
are  now  enduring.  He  is  paid  for  by  the  in 
creased  price  of  labor,  the  increased  price  of 
land  and  bread,  the  withdrawal  of  labor  from 
the  free  States,  the  converting  of  an  immense 
population  into  an  army.  This  is  the  pay  for 
it.  It  is  paid  for  by  the  iniquity  of  the  re 
bellion  and  they  will  get  no  other  pay  but  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion."  He  closed,  by 


3o4       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

urging  all  Baltimoreans  to  vote  for  a  Conven 
tion,  "which  not  merely  rids  her  commercial 
wealth  of  the  burden  of  being  in  a  slave  State, 
but  restores  to  her  political  equality  with  all 
the  free  regions  of  the  State."  On  October 
12,  1864,  the  new  State  Constitution  abolish 
ing  slavery  was  adopted. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  1864,  the 
breach  between  Lincoln  and  Davis  had  so 
widened  that,  on  May  13,  Governor  E.  D. 
Morgan,  of  New  York,  told  Secretary  Welles 
that  the  hall  in  which  it  was  expected  that  the 
National  Republican  Convention  would  meet 
had  been  hired  by  the  malcontents  through 
the  treachery  and  connivance  of  Davis.84 

Overtures  were  made  Davis  of  support 
for  the  vice-presidential  nomination,  if  he 
would  support  Lincoln,  but  he  indignantly  re 
plied:  "What!  Desert  a  cause  for  my  personal 
preferment."  ffi 

The  National  Union  Convention  met  at 
Baltimore  on  June  8  and  unanimously  renom- 
inated  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency.  Davis,  who 
would  have  preferred  Chase  or  Wade,  was 
seriously  disturbed  by  the  nomination.  The 
proclamation  of  the  President  and  the  raid  of 
Early  into  Maryland  in  July  increased  his  dis 
turbance.  He  feared  that,  with  Lincoln  as  its 
standard-bearer,  the  Union  party  might  even 
lose  the  election,  and  so  participated  in  a  con- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         305 

ference  held  in  New  York  City  at  the  end  of 
July,  in  the  hope  of  securing  Lincoln's  with 
drawal.86 

Later  in  August,  Davis  wrote  Charles  Sum- 
ner,  taking  a  cheerless  view  of  the  prospect 
and  seeing  small  chance  of  success  against 
Executive  influence.87  He  advocated  a  new 
candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  vouched 
Wade  as  a  supporter  of  such  a  man.88 

Davis  was  not  one,  however,  to  sulk89  in  his 
tent,  and,  though  he  was  not  renominated  for 
Congress  nor  invited  to  take  part  in  the  can 
vass  in  Maryland,  he  spoke  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Union  League  in  Philadelphia  on  Octo 
ber  25-90  His  friends  knew  that  he  would 
neither  yield  to  their  persuasions,  nor  to  the 
"threats  and  imprecations  of  enemies."  He 
bent  to  no  considerations  of  "policy,"  but  was 
unbending  in  his  attitude  towards  all  ques 
tions.  He  could  subordinate  personal  con 
siderations  to  those  of  public  interest.  No  act 
of  his  life  is  nobler  or  more  statesmanlike  than 
the  delivery  of  the  eloquent  Philadelphia  ora 
tion.  Bitterly  and  rightfully  opposing  the 
policy  of  the  President,  disappointed  in  his 
hopes  of  a  renomination  for  Congress,  but  yet 
convinced  that  the  success  of  the  effort  to  put 
down  the  rebellion  demanded  Lincoln's  re 
election,  with  fine  magnanimity  he  sprang  to 
his  support.  Davis  began  his  address  with  a 

20 


306       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

statement  of  his  beliefs,  that  "the  canvass  in 
which  the  American  people  are  now  engaged 
is  very  much  the  most  momentous  that  the  his 
tory  of  the  world,  or  of  free  government,  has 
produced.  If  it  succeed,  as  in  my  judgment 
it  will  succeed,  in  placing  in  power  the  men 
who  have  conducted  the  Government  through 
this  awful  crisis,  till  safety  begins  to  be  visible, 
a  result  will  have  been  accomplished  which 
will  forever  place  the  capacity  of  the  people 
of  America  for  self-government  beyond  cavil 
—beyond  the  reach  of  question — for  they  are 
called  to  vote  for  the  election  of  a  man  who 
has  presided  over  the  Government  in  circum 
stances  altogether  unprecedented,  during  a 
time  when  vast  sacrifices  have  been  exacted 
and  vast  sacrifices  have  cheerfully  been  made 
by  the  mass  of  the  American  people;  when 
enormous  taxes  have  been  imposed;  when 
enormous  armies  have  been  raised;  when  great 
results  were  expected  and  great  results  have 
not  always  been  achieved;  when  disaster  has 
perched  upon  the  national  banner  as  often  as 
victory;  and  when  the  great  preponderance  of 
our  resources  in  men  and  money,  while  grad 
ually  and  steadily  eating  toward  the  heart  of 
the  rebellion,  have  not  reached  it  with  that 
promptness,  have  not  crushed  it  with  that  de 
cisiveness  that  our  hopes  led  us  to  expect  when 
the  war  broke  out.  Under  these  circumstances, 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         307 

judged  by  the  history  of  the  world,  discontent, 
dissension,  the  lack  of  spirit  and  of  energy,  di 
visions  at  home,  dictating  tones  from  abroad, 
popular  submission,  popular  bewilderment, 
were  what  we  were  entitled  to  expect — nay, 
what  we  were  bound  to  expect.  Instead  of 
that,  what  do  we  behold?  The  great  mass  of 
the  American  people  having,  as  it  were,  been 
surprised  into  the  renomination  of  the  present 
candidate — then  for  a  moment  pausing,  as  if 
frightened  at  what  they  had  done — then  lis 
tening  to  the  first  echo  from  Chicago,  and  for 
getting  every  doubt,  throwing  aside  every 
hesitation,  subjecting  every  criticism  to  the 
dictates  of  the  highest  reason  and  the  highest 
statesmanship,  as  one  man,  turned  to  the  can 
didate  whom  before  they  had  doubted,  with 
a  resolution  that  they  must  make  an  election— 
not  between  two  individuals,  not  between  the 
personal  qualities  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
George  B.  McClellan,  not  between  the  public 
services  of  the  one  or  the  other,  but  an  election 
between  the  overthrow  and  the  salvation  of  the 
Republic."  There  is  no  wonder  that  the  au 
dience  here  interrupted  the  speech  with  loud 
applause.  He  subordinated  his  personal  dis 
likes  and  differences  of  opinion  to  the  great 
question,  "what  do  we  wish  to  accomplish?" 
and,  without  hesitation,  said  that  "I,  and  thou 
sands  like  me  in  America,"  will  vote  for  Abra- 


3o8       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ham  Lincoln,  because,  "if  we  desire  a  change, 
we  cannot  change  now  without  bringing  ruin 
upon  the  Republic;  and,  for  that  reason,  every 
doubt  is  subordinated  to  the  great  necessities 
of  empire."  "Great  sacrifices,"  he  continued, 
"heretofore  made,  are  to  be  thrown  away,  if 
you  come  to  one  judgment,  and  to  be  fruitful 
in  blessings,  if  you  come  to  another  judg 
ment."  The  decision  must  be  made  solemnly, 
with  full  consciousness  that  it  means  continu 
ance  of  the  war,  that  "it  dooms  fifty  thousand 
men  to  death,  and  that  they  have  to  come  from 
your  brothers  and  your  sons;"  that  it  deter 
mines  "whether  the  fabric  of  government 
reared  by  our  fathers  shall  remain  untouched, 
whether  the  integrity  of  republican  institu 
tions  shall  be  preserved."  He  had  "never  for 
a  moment  hesitated"  in  his  belief  "that  the 
mass  of  the  American  people,  taxation,  blood 
shed,  failure  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
are  for  the  war  as  the  only  path  of  safety.  Not 
because  they  want  bloodshed,  but  because  they 
want  peace;  not  because  they  want  to  subju 
gate  their  fellow-citizens,  but  because  they  are 
determined  all  shall  be  free."  Consequently, 
when  the  Democratic  platform  expressed  a 
"doubt  as  to  whether  the  war  was  to  proceed," 
the  people's  judgment  was  settled  as  to  the 
candidate.  It  is  not  desired  to  restore  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         309 

Union  "as  heretofore,"  when  Buchanan  was 
President,  and  the  nation  was  humiliated. 

The  Democratic  success  would  mean  to  the 
Union  "its  submission  to  Southern  dictation, 
its  destruction  before  Southern  rebellion,  dis 
solution  and  death,  and  not  preservation." 
The  Democrats  advocate  a  cessation  of  hostili 
ties,  opening  the  door  for  foreign  intervention. 
If  the  Confederates  refuse  to  makepeace,"how 
will  you  ever  take  up  the  musket,  after  it  has 
been  laid  down?"  It  was  clear  that  "the  ces 
sation  of  the  war  means  the  end  of  the  war- 
that  the  end  of  the  war  means  the  end  of  co 
ercive  measures  for  the  restoration  of  the  Re 
public."  McClellan's  backers  were  Peace 
Democrats,  and  would  "repeal  every  law  on 
the  statute  book  for  carrying  on  of  the  war," 
disband  the  negro  regiments,  and  "remove  the 
suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus,  in  order  that 
Democratic  traitors  might  walk  at  large  and 
communicate  with  the  enemy."  The  Republi 
cans  have  "struggled,  to  the  best  of  their  abil 
ity,  be  it  poor  or  great,  for  four  years  to  carry 
on"  the  war,  and  "if  they  are  not  stripped  of 
power  now,  will,  in  a  reasonable  time,  put  an 
end  to  it."  There  is  no  other  way  of  "restoring 
the  integrity  of  the  Republic  than  bythebloody 
paths  of  war."  Davis  had  taken  that  position 
in  the  fall  of  1860,  and  never  swerved  from  it. 
He  saw  clearly,  from  the  time  of  the  secession 


3io       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

of  South  Carolina,  that  "the  only  path  to  unity 
in  this  country  is  over  bloody  battle  fields." 

The  people  must  not  be  deluded.  "You  may 
be  near  the  end  of  the  rebellion,  but  there  is 
many  a  sharp  struggle  before  you  yet,  and  the 
only  way  to  end  it  is  to  let  the  rebels  have  no 
rest,  to  press  them  on,  day  by  day,  and  night 
by  night,  filling  up  the  gulf  between  you  and 
them  with  your  dead  sons  and  brothers,  if 
necessary,  but  remembering  that  every  week 
of  armistice,  every  day  of  delay,  every  month 
of  winter  quarters  means  other  hetacombs  to 
fill  up  the  gap  in  your  march."  The  Demo 
crats  raised  objections  to  Lincoln's  conduct  of 
his  administration,  but  Davis  boldly  cried 
that  "the  Republican  party  stands  at  his  back 
and  takes  the  responsibility  of  what  has  passed 
before."  Mistakes  had  been  made,  "yet  the 
substantial  things  of  government  had  been 
done  better  than  our  antagonists  could  do 
them."  Striking  at  the  central  point  of  the 
campaign,  Davis  averred  that  "the  question  is 
not  whether  Mr.  Lincoln  has  done  the  best 
that  any  mind  could  conceive,  nor  even  the 
best  that  he  himself  could  do,  nor  whether 
what  he  has  done,  is  absolutely  right,  or  abso 
lutely  in  accordance  with  law;  but  the  ques 
tion  is  whether  his  opponent  would  do  better." 
This  question  Davis  unhesitatingly  answered 
negatively,  saying  that  the  "greatest  of  all  fail- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         311 

ures"  during  the  war  was  the  "failure  of 
George  B.  McClellan,"  and  that  to  that  fail 
ure,  more  than  to  any  other  cause,  the  duration 
of  the  war  was  due. 

The  Democrats  objected  to  the  violation  of 
the  rights  of  personal  liberty,  but  Davis  re 
plied  that  liberty  stands  in  the  same  category 
with  life.  "How  many  men  has  Abraham 
Lincoln  shot  down,  according  to  the  law,  be 
cause  they  stood  in  grey  clothes  before  men  in 
blue  clothes?"  Why  are  the  captured  Con 
federates  confined?  "May  men  furnish  the 
enemy  with  munitions  of  war,  or  clothes,  or 
information,  or  give  them  aid  and  comfort,  or 
send  them  medicines,  and  yet  not  be  within  the 
range  of  indictment  for  treason,  or  at  the  op 
tion  of  the  country,  the  military  security  of  a 
discretionary  arrest?"  It  is  true  that  Lincoln 
suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  illegally, 
as  Davis  warned  him,  in  the  first  year  of  the 
war;  but  in  1863 Congress  suspended  it  legally. 

What  is  McClellan's  record?  In  September, 
1 86 1,  he  was  "the  first  man  that  took  a  step  in 
the  direction  of  arresting  without  judicial  pro 
cess,"  when  he  ordered  General  Banks  to  seize 
members  of  the  Maryland  Legislature  who 
had  Southern  sympathies.  Davis  believed 
that,  on  the  whole,  "more  men  have  been  im 
properly  discharged  than  have  been  improp 
erly  arrested,"  but  he  was  certain  that,  with 


3i2       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

McClellan's  record,  he  is  not  the  man  to  im 
peach  the  conduct  of  the  President  as  to  ar 
rests."  McClellan's  action  was  taken  when 
"there  was  no  armed  foe  in  Maryland." 

The  Democrats  also  alleged  that  "military 
power  has  been  brought  to  bear  illegally  upon 
elections,  and  Reverdy  Johnson  had  recently 
made  such  imputation."  Here  again  Davis 
was  able  to  point  out  the  inconsistency  of  the 
Democratic  position,  by  calling  attention  to 
McClellan's  order  of  October  29,  1861,  to 
General  Banks  in  Maryland,  not  only  "to  pro 
tect  Union  voters  and  to  see  that  no  disunion- 
ists  are  allowed  to  intimidate  them,"  but  also 
"to  arrest  and  hold  in  confinement  till  after 
the  election  all  disunionists  who  are  known  to 
have  returned  from  Virginia  recently  and  who 
show  themselves  at  the  polls."  He  further 
authorized  Banks  to  suspend  the  habeas  cor 
pus  act,  in  carrying  out  these  instructions,  and 
gave  the  "first  example  in  the  United  States 
during  this  war  of  an  attempt  to  prevent 
rebels  from  voting."  McClellan  used  the 
wider  term  of  disunionists,  yet  Johnson,  with 
out  complaining  of  the  order,  was  a  successful 
candidate  for  the  House  of  Delegates  at  that 
election  and  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate  91  by  the  Legislature  then  chosen. 

Since  the  Democrats  claimed  that,  if  success 
ful,  they  would  carry  on  the  war  on  Christian 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         313 

principles,  Davis  showed,  by  the  warfare  of 
England,  France,  Russia  and  other  European 
nations,  that  "there  never  has  been  a  war  con 
ducted  upon  principles  that  could  be  called  so 
nearly  Christian,  excepting  that  the  only 
Christian  principle  I  can  apply  to  the  conduct 
of  war  is  that  it  shall  be  short,  and  sharp,  and 
merciful.  And  the  danger  of  this  war  has 
been  that  the  President  could  not  rise  to  the 
height  of  the  emergency  and  steel  his  heart 
against  what  was  pity  in  the  individual,  but 
cruelty  in  the  ruler."  Davis  held  that  war 
meant  the  "greatest  destruction  in  the  shortest 
time.  That  is  mercy  and  that  is  wisdom." 

The  Democratic  party,  he  believed  to  be 
disloyal  at  heart,  and  he  considered  it  no  idle 
threat  that  they  had  adjourned  their  conven 
tion  to  meet  at  the  call  of  the  National  Com 
mittee.  He  feared  that  if  the  election  of 
President  should  depend  on  the  vote  of  the 
Border  Union  States,  the  Democrats  would 
allege  that  the  election  was  illegal  and  would 
try  to  overthrow  the  Government.  He  was 
confident,  however,  that  a  majority  of  the  Free 
States  would  vote  for  Lincoln,  and  advocated 
prompt  action. 

The  Democrats  asserted  that  "the  policy  of 
the  President  has  divided  the  North  and 
united  the  South,"  but  Davis  replied  that  the 
North  had  never  been  united,  for  there  "never 


3 H       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

was  a  day  that  the  great  mass  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  and  its  chief  leaders  were  not  op 
posed  to  the  war."  As  to  uniting  the  South, 
that  was  done  by  the  firing  on  Sumter  and  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  as  McClellan's  own  testi 
mony  in  1 86 1  proved.  From  that  time  "the 
South  united  themselves  to  gain  their  inde 
pendence."  Again  turning  to  McClellan's 
record,  Davis  showed  that  in  July,  1862,  he 
had  favored  the  "right  of  the  Government  to 
appropriate  claims  to  slave  labor  permanently 
to  its  own  service,"  and  was  willing  even  to 
extend  this  confiscation  to  "all  the  slaves  of  a 
particular  State,  thus  working  manumission 
in  such  State,"  whether  it  be  loyal  or  not.  He 
was  thus  several  months  ahead  of  the  emanci 
pation  proclamation,  in  which  proclamation 
Davis  believed  the  President  overstepped  "his 
legal  authority." 

In  1862  the  country  had  been  divided,  with 
the  majority  against  the  Administration. 
Now  the  "majority  is  on  our  side,"  the  "radi 
cal  maniacs"  have  turned  out  to  be  "wise 
statesmen.  Energy,  for  the  thousandth  time, 
has  been  shown  to  be  stronger  than  hesitating 
weakness.  When  a  thing  is  to  be  done,  the 
shortest  way  is  the  best  way  to  do  it,  and  brings 
strength  and  energy  with  it.  The  country  to 
day  stands  committed  to  this:  the  end  of  the 
war,  the  integrity  of  the  Government,  and  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         315 

extinction  of  the  cause  of  the  war — slavery." 
Our  strength  has  grown  in  proportion  as  the 
"Black  abolitionists"  have  "got  near  the  Presi 
dent's  ear  and  the  men  of  the  Blair  school  have 
got  far  from  it."  He  traced  the  progress  of 
events,  freeing  of  slaves  who  aided  the  rebel 
lion;  prohibition  of  return  of  fugitives;  eman 
cipation  in  the  District;  enlistment  of  negroes; 
proclamationof  freedom, whichwillnot  be  law 
until  Congress  shall  act,  but  which  was  "an 
utterance,  though  illegal,  in  the  right  direc 
tion;"  the  admission  of  West  Virginia  on  con 
dition  that  she  should  abolish  slavery;  emanci 
pation  in  Misouri;  the  enlisting  of  negroes  as 
substitutes  for  whites  in  Maryland;  the  law 
which  declared  that  bond  and  free  owed  mili 
tary  service  on  the  same  conditions;  and,  fin 
ally,  emancipation  in  Maryland.  Davis  had 
felt  bitterly  the  lack  of  support  from  Wash 
ington  in  the  struggle  for  victory  in  Mary 
land,  and  said  that  only  Stanton  and  liberal 
gentlemen  in  Philadelphia  and  Boston  had 
given  encouragement  and  aid  to  the  making 
the  State  free,  by  the  "untouched  and  untram- 
meled  vote  of  her  own  citizens."  The  Repub 
lican  party  then  stood  "more  united,  stronger, 
agreeing  better  in  opinion,  more  resolutely  de 
termined  to  meet  the  public  enemies,  more 
united  about  the  instruments  that  we  shall  use 
to  smite  them  down,  than  at  any  other  period." 


316       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Davis  hoped  that  the  men  who  advised  Lin 
coln  to  give  a  pocket  veto  to  the  bill  to  secure 
freedom  to  the  slaves,  would  not  repeat  their 
advice,  for  it  would  be  clear  that  "the  mass  of 
the  American  people  are  resolved  that  no  slave 
shall  breathe  the  American  air."  In  this  pe 
roration  he  insisted,  with  eloquence,  that  the 
people  needed  "resolutely  to  determine  that, 
having  gone  through  the  greater  part  of  the 
suffering  which  they  will  be  called  upon  to 
endure  during  the  war,  they  will  only  endure 
a  little  longer,  they  will  only  not  fail  in  the 
very  hour  and  crisis  of  victory;  for  he  that 
holds  out  the  longest  is  sure  of  the  victory. 
The  only  criterion  of  a  great  nationality  is  the 
capacity  of  endurance."  If  we  endure  as  the 
Romans  did,  we  shall  surpass  their  state  in 
greatness. 

The  second  session  of  the  Thirty-seventh 
Congress  saw  Davis's  last  appearance  in  public 
life  and  found  him  ardent  and  forceful  as 
ever.  At  the  very  opening  of  the  session,93  he 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  have  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  reported,  per 
mitting  export  duties  to  be  laid,  and  he  se 
cured  the  reference  to  the  Election  Commit 
tee  of  a  petition  from  Louisianians,  protesting 
against  the  seating  of  persons  claiming  to  have 
been  elected  to  the  House  from  that  State.94 

On  December  15,  still  protesting  against  the 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         317 

foreign  policy  of  Lincoln  in  reference  to  Mex 
ico,  Davis  offered  a  resolution  similar  to  the 
resolution  which  he  had  presented  on  June  27, 
but  the  House  was  no  longer  swayed  by  him. 
A  Presidential  election  had  intervened  and  the 
resolution  was  laid  on  the  table  by  a  vote  of 
69  to  63-95  Smarting  under  this  defeat,  Davis 
immediately  asked  to  be  excused  from  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  since  he  dif 
fered  from  the  majority  of  the  House.96  He 
recited  the  unanimous  passage  of  the  resolu 
tion  of  April  4,  and  the  fact  that  three  days 
later  Seward  "directed  our  representatives 
abroad  virtually  to  apologize  to  the  French 
government  for  the  resolution,"  and  even 
"presumed  to  impeach  Congress  of  usurpation 
in  undertaking  to  prescribe  to  the  President 
rules  to  govern  his  foreign  policy.  That  cor 
respondence  was  made  the  subject  of  a  circu 
lar  by  the  French  government  to  all  the  gov 
ernments  of  the  world,  and  in  the  debates  in 
the  French  Assembly  the  world  was  given  to 
understand  that  the  resolution  was  a  vain  and 
presumptuous  usurpation."  Seward's  letter 
"was  in  a  tone  that  was  not  respectful  to  the 
dignity  and  authority  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives."  Davis  maintained  that  "The  Sec 
retary  of  State,  before  all  Europe,  in  a  matter 
of  the  greatest  moment,  slapped  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  the  face,  and  the  House  of 


318       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Representatives  says  it  will  not  even  assert  its 
dignity."  The  members  of  the  House  has 
tened  to  assure  Davis  of  their  confidence  in 
him.  They  had  yielded,  because  there  was 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  further  protest.  S.  S. 
Cox  supported  Davis's  position  as  to  Seward, 
but  would  not  vote  to  excuse  him  from  the 
committee,  and  testified  to  "his  ability,  to  his 
earnestness,  to  his  energy,  and  to  his  outspoken 
integrity."  Elaine  could  not  support  Davis, 
but  could  not  excuse  him  from  the  commit 
tee.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who  took  Davis's 
view  of  the  action  of  the  Administration, 
urged  Davis  not  to  consider  the  vote  of  the 
House  as  a  personal  reflection  upon  him. 
Boutwell  said  that  the  majority  cast  no  reflec 
tion  on  Davis,  and  that  "no  gentleman  enjoys 
to  a  greater,  if  to  an  equal,  extent  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  members  on  this 97  side,  and, 
as  far  as  I  know,  on  the  other  side."  Davis's 
resolution  went  too  far.  The  President 
should  be  arraigned  for  disregarding  the 
expressed  judgment  of  Congress,  when 
only  one  House  had  expressed  such  a 
judgment.  Farnsworth  expressed  his  high 
opinion  of  Davis,  and  said  that  he  had 
moved  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table 
without  disrespect  for  Davis.98  Davis  closed 
the  debate,  saying:  "I  have  been  brought  up 
on  defeats;  I  have  lived  in  minorities."  Only 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         319 

one  member  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Af 
fairs  dissented  from  the  resolution,  which  was 
caused  by  the  fact  that  "a  free  nation  on  our 
borders  lay  bleeding  in  the  talons  of  the 
French  eagle,  and  a  vagrant  adventurer,  who 
had  never  seen  the  soil  of  Mexico,  called  him 
self  her  emperor."  The  precedents  showed 
that  Congress  had  the  right  to  declare  and 
prescribe  foreign  policy,  and  not  the  Presi 
dent  alone,  as  Seward  asserted.  Davis  distin 
guished  between  his  position  as  chairman  and 
that  of  a  member  of  a  committee,  and  stated 
that  he  felt  that  he  was  not  the  representative 
of  the  House  on  this  question.  He  was  not 
willing  to  submit  to  a  surrender  of  the  power 
of  the  people,  and  asserted  that  a  Congres 
sional  vote  is  not  a  proper  subject  of  executive 
criticism.  The  House  refused  to  excuse  Davis 
from  his  position.  Four  days  later  he  reintro- 
duced  his  resolution,"  and  when  Farnsworth 
again  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  Davis  won 
by  73  to  49.  He  then  moved  the  previous 
question,  and  carried  it  by  a  vote  of  71  to  56. 
The  resolution  was  divided,  and  then  the  for 
mer  part  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  118  to  8, 
and  the  latter  by  a  vote  of  68  to  58. 

Of  this  victory,  Davis's  bitter  enemy, Welles, 
wrote:100  "There  is  a  disposition  to  make  the 
Legislature  the  controlling  power  of  the  Gov 
ernment.  The  whole  was  conceived  in  a  bad 


320       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

spirit,  and  is  discreditable  to  the  getters  up 
and  those  who  passed  the  resolutions.  Davis 
has  never  been  and  never  will  be  a  useful 
member  of  Congress.  Although  possessing 
talents,  he  is  factious,  uneasy  and  unprinci 
pled.  He  is  just  now  connected  with  a  clique 
of  malcontents,  most  of  whom  were  gathering 
a  few  months  ago  with  Chase." 

Davis's  hostility  to  the  Administration  was 
shown  m  by  his  speech  favoring  investigation 
of  military  imprisonments.  John  Ganson,  of 
New  York,  had  moved  to  have  a  jail  delivery 
from  the  old  Capitol  and  Carroll  prisons. 
Stevens  opposed  the  motion,  while  S.  S.  Cox 
favored  it,  and  afterwards  wrote  that  Davis 
placed  "the  matter  on  the  highest  ground." 
He  demanded  that  the  committee  examine  the 
facts  and  spread  them  before  the  American 
people.  "This  is  bold  ground.  It  is  worthy 
of  the  parliamentary  heroism  in  the  time  of 
the  Stuarts  and  their  prerogative.  It  is  an 
audacious  act  in  a  member  of  the  dominant 
and  arrogant  party." 

The  law  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  cor 
pus,  in  Davis's  opinion,  allowed  too  limited  a 
discretion  to  the  President,  but,  being  law, 
should  have  been  obeyed.  "This  suspension 
is  not  a  substitute  for  the  criminal  law,  but  is 
political  in  its  character,  merely  precaution 
ary  to  avert  dangers,  not  to  punish  crimes;  it 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-186.?         321 

looks  to  the  future,  not  to  the  past;  it  is,  in  war 
or  in  grave  political  danger,  what  security  to 
keep  the  peace  is  to  the  daily  administration 
of  justice.  I  am  ready  to  vote  to  enlarge  the 
liberty  which  it  confers  upon  the  President, 
but  shall  vote  to  stop  the  abuse  of  continued, 
perpetual  and  reiterated  disobedience  to  law." 
He  maintained  that  the  resolution  was  not  un 
necessarily  censorious,  in  reference  to  Lincoln, 
or  his  Cabinet  officers;  for  "many  abuses  con 
nected  with  a  war  of  this  magnitude  may  not 
come  to  their  knowledge."  In  Maryland,  for 
example,  arrests  have  been  made  by  a  person 
calling  himself  a  provost-marshal,  a  term 
not  known  to  the  National  laws,  who  acted  ab 
solutely  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  War.  "The  very  independence  of 
American  character  is  being  broken  down  un 
der  the  unchecked  license  of  military  arrests, 
and  people  come  to  believe  that  the  existence 
of  a  state  of  war  justifies  anything  in  the  shape 
of  discretionary  and  arbitrary  authority  on  the 
part  of  military  officers."  Men  were  afraid 
to  complain  and,  thereby,  incur  the  displeas 
ure  of  the  military  authorities.  The  Secretary 
of  War  had  "endeavored  to  mitigate  the 
abuses,  but  oppressions  are  inseparable  from 
illegal  arrests."  Garfield  joined  Davis,  the 
measure  was  passed,  and  a  reconsideration  re 
fused  by  a  vote  of  136  to  5. 

21 


322       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

When  the  Legislative  Appropriation  Bill 
was  debated,104  Davis  said  that  he  usually  fol 
lowed  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  with 
half  an  eye,  but  he  now  opposed  an  increase 
in  a  salary  asked,  because  of  depreciation  of 
the  currency,  as  he  thought  the  remedy  lay  in 
improving  the  currency.  He  was  willing  to 
vote  for  an  increase  in  a  salary,  when  it  was 
inadequate  on  its  original  basis  and  had  no 
just  proportion  to  salaries  paid  for  like  serv 
ices  in  the  ordinary  business  of  the  country. 
He  also  promised  to  support  any  measure 
which  tended  to  deduce  the  volume  of  the  cur 
rency  and  thereby  to  add  to  its  value. 

On  the  next  day,  in  pursuance  of  the  same 
hard  money  principle,  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  he  objected  to  the  issue  of  more  treas 
ury  notes  and  maintained  that,  although  the 
notes  be  not  a  legal  tender  in  form,  their  value 
would  be  the  same,  since  they  were  susceptible 
of  use  in  ordinary  exchange  and,  therefore, 
they  would  inflate  the  currency.  "I  am  not 
willing  to  put  in  the  hands  of  any  officer,"  con 
tinued  Davis,  "the  power  to  issue  one  more 
dollar  to  be  converted  into  a  circulating  medi 
um."  He  believed  that  the  needs  of  the  Gov 
ernment  should  be  supplied  by  loans  and  of 
fered  a  motion  that  notes,  issued  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  government,  be  not  legal  tender, 
nor  be  of  a  less  denomination  than  $100.  He 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         323 

carried  the  House  with  him,  by  a  vote  of  54  to 
39;  but  Thaddeus  Stevens  stated  that,  if  this 
amendment  remained,  he  would  not  ask  to 
pass  the  bill.  When  report  was  made  to  the 
House,  the  provision  was  stricken  out,  by  the 
narrow  margin  of  60  votes  to  63. 

A  month  later,  when  the  loan  bill  was  be 
fore  the  House,  Davis  moved105  to  strike  out 
provisions  that  the  interest  should  not  ex 
ceed  73/10  per  cent,  and  that  the  rate 
of  interest  be  expressed  on  the  bonds. 
He  said  that,  under  the  bill,  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  might  issue  coupon 
bonds,  or  treasury  notes,  and  increase  the  in 
flation  under  which  the  treasury  suffered. 
"You  have  not  disposed  of  the  currency  ques 
tion,  when  you  have  disposed  of  legal  tender 
bank  notes,  which  are  what  have,  in  great 
measure,  inflated  the  currency."  Davis  as 
serted  that  "Currency  is  anything  that  is  in 
such  form  and  has  such  value  that  it  will  pass, 
conveniently  and  readily,  from  hand  to  hand 
in  lieu  of  coin."  The  Government  made  notes 
legal  tender,  in  order  to  compel  acceptance  of 
them  and  the  act  would  have  been  equally  ef 
fective,  whether  or  not  those  notes  had  a  value 
independent  of  that  given  them  by  the  coercive 
authority.  Without  such  coercive  power,  "if 
the  Government  issues  treasury  notes,  sub-di 
vided  into  sums,  which  will  answer  the  pur- 


324       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

poses  of  currency,  in  such  sums  as  will  pass 
from  hand  to  hand  in  the  daily  commerce  of 
the  land,  so  long  as  the  credit  of  the  Govern 
ment  is  equal  to  the  credit  of  a  bank,  the  treas 
ury  note  will  stand  as  a  bank  note  and,  if  there 
be  two  treasury  notes,  while  the  market  only 
calls  for  one,  there  will  be  a  corresponding  in 
flation  of  currency  and  corresponding  depre 
ciation  of  value."  Whether  "we  shall  adopt 
a  specie  basis,"  or  issue  currency  notes  to  pay 
interest,  was  a  question  on  which  Davis  enter 
tained  serious  doubts.  "Doubtless,  it  would 
be  very  convenient  to  permit  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  to  put  the  credit  of  the  Govern 
ment  in  any  form  that  would  suit  the  con 
venience  of  the  occasion,  but  it  is  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  that  there  should  be  restored  a 
normal  ratio  between  the  currency  of  the  coun 
try  and  the  standards  of  value — gold  and  sil 
ver.106  He  wished  to  reduce  the  "enormous 
volume"  of  the  currency  and  believed  that 
"now,  when  we  can  see  the  end  of  the  rebel 
lion,  the  credit  of  the  Government  can  raise 
by  loan  what  is  needed."  Every  note  of  the 
United  States,  of  a  denomination  under  $_$o, 
passing  from  hand  to  hand,  inflated  the  cur 
rency.  "If  you  double  the  currency,  you 
must  double  the  taxes  and,  if  there  be  any  one 
thing  true,  both  in  point  of  common  sense  and 
political  economy,  it  is  that  every  step  you 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         325 

take  in  the  direction  I  have  indicated  is  a  step 
towards  lightening  the  burdens  of  the  people, 
restoring  the  rates  of  value,  and  making  that 
which  is  the  nominal  standard  of  value  ap 
proximate  to  the  real  one."  On  February  28, 
Davis  followed  his  speech  by  moving  that  no 
note,  hereafter  issued  by  Congress,  shall  be  a 
legal  tender  and  that  no  treasury  note  be  issued 
for  a  less  sum  than  $50,  but  he  was  defeated  by 
a  vote  of  55  to  86. 

On  January  30,  Davis  made  the  first  of 
several  speeches,  advocating  the  establishment 
of  a  Board  of  Admiralty.107  On  February  3, 
Davis  again  advocated  his  proposal.108  The 
condition  of  the  navy  and  the  danger  of  war 
with  foreign  powers,  "so  soon  as  the  rebellion 
shall  be  suppressed,"  made  "it  a  matter  of 
vital  moment  that  we  should  not  be  deluded 
by  any  apparent  strength."  He  had  drawn 
up  his  proposition,  after  conference  with  the 
"first  officers  of  the  navy,"  who,  like  him, 
trembled  at  its  present  condition.  The  naval 
committee  had  deliberated  upon  it  for  nearly 
a  year,  yet  they  refused  to  report  it,  so  Davis 
tried  to  incorporate  it  as  a  rider  to  the  Appro 
priation  Bill  and  have  it  freely  debated.  He 
bitterly  said  that  there  was  little  chance  of  the 
success  of  his  measure,  since  the  administra 
tion  opposed  it,  but  he  wished  to  force  a  vote 
upon  it.  During  the  War,  Secretary  Welles 


326       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

and  "his  irresponsible  Assistant  Secretary, 
who  108a  is  the  real  and  acting  Secretary,"  had 
changed  the  navy  to  convert  us  into  a  first  class 
naval  power,  but  most  of  the  ships  they  had 
provided  would  be  of  no  use  in  a  war  with  a 
European  power,  as  Davis  showed  in  great 
detail.  The  most  of  the  vessels  had  been  use 
ful  in  a  civil  war,  but  would  be  useless  in  a 
foreign  one.  He  then  discussed  the  English 
and  French  plans  of  naval  administration  and 
maintained  that  his  plan  copied  their  excel 
lencies.  The  Secretary  was  left  free  to  act, 
but  only  after  he  had  advised  with  "men  of 
professional  standing,  competent  ability,  and 
of  high  and  permanent  rank."  Previously, 
there  had  been  such  temporary  boards;  now 
there  should  be  a  permanent  one.  During  the 
war,  a  lack  of  responsibility  had  led  to  "the 
rash  empiricism,  the  scandalous  improvidence, 
and  the  costly  failures  which  mark  the  admin 
istration  of  the  department."  He  believed 
that  "half  a  dozen  rebel  cruisers  could  not 
have  swept  our  commerce  from  the  ocean,  or 
driven  it  to  take  refuge  under  foreign  flags, 
and  destroyed  many  millions  of  property,  and 
lighted  every  sea  with  the  conflagration  of  our 
ships  for  three  years,  had  any  body  of  compe 
tent  naval  officers  been  invited  to  devise  a 
systematic  plan  for  their  pursuit  and  capture." 
With  proper  advice,  the  Port  Royal  expedi- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         327 

tion  could  have  been  followed  by  the  fall  of 
Savannah  and  Charleston,  instead  of  being 
left  "barren  to  the  nation  of  half  its  rightful 
fruits."  Davis  was  not  "seeking  to  cast  im 
putations  upon  any  one;"  but  endeavored  "to 
expose  the  evils  of  a  merely  personal  and  ir 
responsible  administration  of  the  department" 
and  to  propose  "an  adequate  remedy."  He 
then  proceeded  to  attack  the  policy  of  build 
ing  monitors,  whose  usefulness  he  decried. 
Rather  should  the  Ironsides  have  been  multi 
plied,  as  it  "met  the  approval  of  naval  officers." 
He  claimed  that  the  popular  clamor  and  the 
"pressure  of  iron  contractors,"  not  the  advice 
of  naval  officers,  produced  the  orders  for  the 
building  of  monitors,  and  that  such  vessels 
had  failed,  by  the  confession  of  the  depart 
ment,  and  had  been  found  as  useless  "for  a 
sea-going  vessel  of  war"  as  well  as  "to  go  in 
shallow  water."  After  a  detailed  statement 
of  his  position,  he  closed  his  speech  with  the 
assertion  that  the  course  of  the  department 
showed  "the  necessity  of  some  supervising 
board,"  to  "secure  to  the  nation  the  money  that 
it  is  now  expending  in  the  structure  of  vessels." 

On  the  following  day,  Davis  spoke  for  the 
third  time,  referred  to  Farragut's  capture  of 
Mobile  with  wooden  ships  and  said  that  his 
opponents  grossly  misrepresented  his  propo 
sition.109  On  the  sixth,  Davis  made  his  last  un- 


328       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

successful  effort  to  carry  his  point.110  He 
spoke  with  great  bitterness,  accused  the  Naval 
Committee  with  failing  to  treat  his  proposi 
tion  with  "ordinary  fairness,"  or  to  show  that 
they  had  even  read  it.111  They  had  accused 
him  of  being  in  "ill  temper,"  but  that  accusa 
tion  did  not  "affect  the  value  of  the  measure." 

He  retorted  that  he  had  not  a  personal  ac 
quaintance  with  either  Welles  nor  Fox,  that 
he  had  not  received  favors  from  them  as  had 
two  of  the  three  members  of  the  committee 
who  had  replied  to  him,  nor  was  he  interested 
in  the  construction  of  ironclads,  as  was  the 
third  member  who  had  spoken  in  reply.  His 
opponents  had  charged  him  with  copying  the 
British  Board  of  Admiralty,  and  that  the 
Naval  Commissioners  of  1815  in  the  United 
States  had  been  such  a  board  as  Davis  de 
scribed.  These  statements,  Davis  denied  and 
asserted  that  he  proposed  "not  to  remove  the 
bureaus,  not  to  substitute  any  other  organiza 
tion  to  discharge  their  ministerial  duties,  not 
to  interfere  with  the  free  discretion  of  the 
Secretary;  but  to  interpose,  on  the  French 
system,  between  the  administrative  discretion 
of  the  Secretary  and  the  ministerial  obedience 
of  the  bureaus,  a  council  of  naval  officers, 
whose  advice  the  Secretary  may  command  on 
all  matters,  whose  opinions  he  must  take  on 
some  matters,  but  which,  when  taken,  he  is 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         329 

free  to  disregard."  He  believed  that  he  was 
supporting  the  "very  foundation"  of  the 
American  system  of  government,  "that  is  to 
have  a  council  of  advisers  around  an  executive 
head,  a  principle  used,  indeed,  by  Napoleon 
in  the  early  days  of  his  empire."  This  board 
of  professional  officers,  appointed  by  the 
President,  would  not  "divide  the  responsi 
bility,"  nor  delay  the  Secretary's  judgment, 
but  put  "light  around  him."  Such  a  Board 
would  have  more  weight  than  one  merely 
summoned  by  the  Secretary.  After  another 
extended  attack  upon  the  monitors,  Davis  re 
turned  to  his  favorite  theme,  the  exaltation  of 
the  power  of  Congress  and  maintained  that, 
so  "long  as  Congress  will  not  assert  its  su 
premacy  over  the  departments,  and  prescribe 
such  organization  of  them  as  will  give  this 
nation  the  benefit  of  its  resources,  so  long  as 
Congress  stops  to  inquire  what  the  depart 
ments  wish,  instead  of  imposing  on  them  what 
the  interest  of  the  nation  requires;  we  will  be 
powerless  before  the  nations  of  the  world." 
He  insisted  that  he  was  "pleading  the  cause 
of  the  American  navy  against  the  Navy  De 
partment"  and  instanced,  as  proving  the  des 
potism  of  the  department,  the  case  of  Admiral 
Wilkes,  who  had  been  punished  "for  contro 
verting  statements  in  the  report  of  the  De 
partment,  seriously  affecting  his  honor  as  an 


330       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

officer."  In  conclusion,  he  insisted  that  he 
was  not  influenced  by  his  "estimate  of  the  per 
sonal  value"  of  Secretary  Welles;  but  looked 
to  "the  day,  when  the  American  nation  will 
have  to  vindicate  its  power  before  the  nations 
of  the  world,  now  insidiously  seeking  its  ruin, 
not  by  stealthy  depredations  on  unarmed  tra 
ders,  but  with  a  navy  bearing  proudly  the  ban 
ner  of  the  republic  over  the  seas." 

Ashley's  bill  for  the  reconstruction  of  the 
seceded  States  had  been  postponed,  in  Janu 
ary,  against  Davis's  wish.112  His  breach  with 
the  administration  was  wide  113  and  the  parties 
on  either  side  of  it  were  bitter  in  their  re 
marks  concerning  those  on  the  other  one.114 

In  his  brief,  vigorous  speech  on  February111 
21,  which  closed  the  debate  upon  Ashley's 
bill,  Davis  reiterated  the  position  he  had 
previously  taken,  but  with  an  advance,  for  the 
bill  provided  that  all  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  instead  of  all  white  residents,  should  be 
enrolled  as  voters.  In  general,  the  bill  was 
the  same  as  that  passed  at  the  last  session. 
Some  had  voted  for  it  before,  who  opposed  it 
now,  because  it  was  the  "will  of  the  President 
that  has  been  discovered  since  the  bill  had 
been  passed."  Davis  prophesied  that  "the 
course  of  military  events  seems  to  indicate 
that,  possibly  by  the  fourth  of  next  July,  prob 
ably  by  December,  organized  and  armed 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         331 

rebellion  will  cease  to  lift  its  brazen  head  in 
the  land."  "If  this  bill,"  therefore,  "does  not 
become  a  law,"  and  Davis  gloomily  feared  its 
defeat,  when  Congress  again  meets,  "at  our 
door,  clamorous  and  dictatorial,  will  be  65 
representatives  from  the  States  now  in  rebel 
lion  and  22  Senators  claiming  admission." 
"You  can  prevent  the  rise  of  the  flood  now; 
but,  when  it  is  up,  you  cannot  stop  it."  These 
claimants  of  seats  will  be  either  those  who 
have  been  rebels  or,  like  those  chosen  in  Louis 
iana,  "servile  tools  of  the  executive,"  who  will 
be  supplanted  by  "rebel  representatives"  after 
two  years.  A  declaratory  resolution  will  not  be 
sufficient,  stating  that  members  of  Congress 
shall  "not  be  received  from  any  State  hereto 
fore  declared  in  rebellion,  until  a  joint  act  or 
resolution  of  Congress .  shall  have  declared 
that  they  have  organized  a  new  government." 
There  must  be  a  law  forbidding  an  election, 
as  was  done  in  the  proposed  Statute.  After 
such  a  law,  for  the  President  to  sanction  such 
an  election  "would  be  an  impeachable  offence 
and,  if  he  did  not  sanction  it,  the  question 
would  never  be  here  to  trouble  us."  The  pro 
visional  governors  ought  to  be  appointed,  ac 
cording  to  law,  and  the  President  should  not  re 
main  "in  power,  with  no  law  to  guide  him." 
Ten  years  before,  the  United  States  Govern 
ment  was  one  of  law.  Davis  had  "lived  to  see 


332       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

it  a  government  of  personal  will.  Congress 
has  dwindled  from  a  power  to  dictate  law  and 
the  policy  of  the  government,  to  a  commission 
to  audit  accounts  and  appropriate  moneys,  to 
enable  the  executive  to  execute  his  will  and 
not  ours."  Dawes  had  charged  that  the  bill 
revived  the  "black  laws  of  the  South."  Davis 
denied  this  charge  and  stated  that  the  law 
provided  that  both  negroes  and  whites  were 
"to  be  tried  by  the  same  court,  under  the  same 
law,  upon  the  same  evidence,  for  the  same 
crime."  There  was  "no  time  fixed,  within 
which  the  provisional  governor  must  call 
upon  the  people  to  elect  whether  they  will 
exercise  a  State  government  or  not,"  for  that 
matter  was  necessarily  left  to  his  judgment. 
The  real  objection  was  not  to  the  length  of 
time  of  the  rule  which  the  bill  prescribed,  but 
to  the  prescription  of  any  rule  at  all.  Davis 
would  not  agree  that  one-tenth  of  the  voters 
might  "stain  the  national  triumph,  by  creating 
a  low,  wretched,  vulgar,  corrupt  and  coward 
ly  oligarchy  to  govern  the  free  men  of  the 
United  States — the  national  arms  to  guarantee 
and  enforce  their  oppressions;  not  by  my  vote, 
sir,  not  by  my  vote."  He  insisted  that  the 
House  must  "say  whether  it  prefers  arbitrary 
discretion  or  legal  rule;"  whether  or  not  it 
would  "erect  a  barrier  now"  to  prevent  "the 
pressure  of  the  times  and  the  clamor  of  the 
day"  from  overwhelming  their  successors. 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         333 

In  spite  of  all  Davis's  efforts  and  his  alli 
ance  with  Stevens,  the  bill  was  laid  on  the 
table  by  a  vote  of  91  to  64  and  his  defeat  was 
complete.116 

At  the  very  end  of  the  session,117  when  the 
Miscellaneous  Appropriation  Bill  was  on  its 
final  passage,118  Davis  delivered  his  last  Con 
gressional  speech  in  behalf  of  an  amendment 
that  no  person  should  be  tried  by  a  court- 
martial,  or  by  a  military  commission  in  any 
State  or  Territory  where  the  Federal  Courts 
are  open,  except  persons  actually  in  military 
or  naval  service,  or  rebel  enemies  charged 
with  being  spies,  and  that  all  proceedings  con 
trary  thereto  should  be  void  and  the  persons 
held  in  custody  through  such  proceedings 
should  be  discharged.  He  maintained  that 
that  his  amendment  cast  an  "imputation  on  no 
officer;  but,  recognizing  the  error  which  the 
people,  as  well  as  the  Government,  have,  in 
common,  committed  against  the  foundation  of 
their  own  safety,  now,  before  the  very  idea  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  law  has  faded  from  the 
country,  to  restore  it  to  its  power."  119  The 
amendment  was  confined  in  its  operation  to 
civilians  in  the  loyal  States. 

The  Speaker  ruled  the  amendment  out  of 
order,  as  not  germane  to  the  bill,  but  the 
House  overruled  him  by  a  vote  of  50  to  65. 
Stevens  then  opposed  the  proposition,  saying 


334       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

that  debate  should  not  be  delayed.  Davis  de 
nied  ever  embarrassing  "the  proceedings  of 
the  House  by  any  pertinacious  adherence  to 
schemes  of  my  own,"  as  he  insinuated  had  been 
done  by  Stevens.  "Such  a  proposition"  as  this 
amendment  "will  never  be  out  of  place  while 
the  voice  of  liberty  is  heard."  Davis  had 
watched  the  "gradual  intrusion  of  the  mili 
tary  on  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  from  the  out 
break  of  the  rebellion,"  when  McClellan  "set 
the  bad  example,  in  an  order  illegally  sus 
pending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  Mary 
land."  There  had  been  unconstitutional  usur 
pations,  which  ought  not  to  be  continued.  The 
ridiculousness  of  the  military  position  was 
shown  by  the  fact  that  a  Baltimorean  had  been 
placed  in  prison  by  a  military  tribunal  for 
counterfeiting  Confederate  currency!  Davis 
well  said  that  "I  can  state  no  other  fact  that 
will  better  illustrate  the  insolence  of  irrespon 
sible  military  tribunals,  known  to  no  law,  ap 
pointed  under  no  law,  restrained  by  no  law, 
authorized  by  nobody."  When  Stevens  inter 
rupted,  saying  that  a  "man  who  was  fool 
enough  to  spend  his  time  in  such  work  ought 
to  suffer  some  severe  punishment,"  Davis  wit 
tily  retorted  that:  "If  all  fools  are  at  the  mercy 
of  the  military  courts  and  they  are  to  judge  of 
it,  they  have  a  wide  jurisdiction."  When 
Davis  had  been  asked  to  importune  Lincoln 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         335 

for  the  pardon  of  a  man  convicted  by  a  mili 
tary  commission  for  selling  goods  to  a  govern 
ment  spy,  in  the  belief  that  they  were  to  be  sent 
into  the  Southern  Confederacy,  he  had  re 
fused  to  "beg,  as  a  favor,  the  personal  liberty 
of  an  American,  illegally  and  oppressively 
condemned,"  especially  since  "the  President 
had  twice  refused  to  refer  his  case  to  the  courts 
of  the  United  States."  He  was  alarmed,  be 
cause  military  courts  try  "loyal  men  in  loyal 
States,  where  no  war  rages,  for  violation  of 
what  they  call  the  usages  of  war,"  and  thus 
annul  every  act  of  Congress.  Even  guerrillas, 
such  as  are  captured  in  Kentucky,  should  have 
a  civil  trial.  He  held  that  the  demand  for 
military  courts  came  from  the  fact  that  a 
"sharper  and  easier  way  to  deal  with  crimi 
nals  as  enemies"  was  desired.  "It  is  the  cry 
for  vengeance  and  not  justice."  Maryland 
was  a  State  that  had  "been  disturbed  by  in 
ternal  dissensions,"  and  Davis  feared  to  per 
mit  "military  tribunals  to  apply  their  harsh, 
sharp  vengeance  between  men  who  live  on  ad 
jacent  estates,  at  the  instigation  of  personal 
revenge,  of  malice,  without  local  public  trial, 
unprotected  by  the  rights  secured  to  them  by 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws."  If  men  "have 
committed  acts  which  render  them  dangerous, 
but  are  not  criminal,  or  can  not  be  proved,  we 
have  authorized  the  suspension  of  the  habeas 


336       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

corpus,"  and  that  is  a  sufficient  safeguard.  A 
provision  declaring  acts  of  military  commis 
sions  void  should  be  placed  in  the  law,  so  that 
a  loud  voice  "may  go  out  to  the  people,  an 
nouncing  that  their  representatives  recognize 
that  fact,  and  encouraging  the  people  to  seek 
redress,"  not  by  crawling  solicitations  at  the 
hands  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
but  of  right  by  law,  before  the  courts,  which 
are  the  glory  and  the  safety  of  the  American 
Republic."  As  a  military  commission  had 
no  jurisdiction,  condemnation  by  that  tribunal 
would  not  be  a  conviction  to  prevent  a  court 
trial.  "Public  safety  never  has  required  these 
illegal  and  summary  trials;  it  now  requires 
that  they  cease."  Davis  had  prepared  his 
amendment,  after  careful  thought  and  fre 
quent  consultations,  and  was  not  willing  to 
change  one  word  of  it.  John  F.  Farnsworth, 
of  Illinois,  rose  to  insist  that  the  vigorous 
measures  of  the  President  had  alone  saved  the 
day  in  Maryland,  but  Davis  came  to  the  de 
fense  of  the  loyalty  of  the  State  with  the  asser 
tion  "that  there  never  was  a  day  when  the 
people  of  Maryland  were  not  masters  of  her 
fortune  and  masters  of  the  Capital  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in 
augurated  there  only  because  they  were 
loyal."  There  had  been  no  need  for  Lincoln 
to  flee  through  Baltimore.  Farnsworth  con- 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         337 

tinued,  emphasizing  the  need  of  military  tri 
bunals  and  regretting  that  Davis  should  make 
a  speech  on  which  he  received  congratulations 
from  Democrats  such  as  Harris,  of  Maryland, 
and  Voorhees. 

Of  Davis's  part  in  this  debate,  S.  S.  Cox120 
wrote  that  he  "rose  again  to  a  height  of  grand 
argument  in  favor  of  personal  liberty."  His 
speech  was  "an  awakening  to  those  who  were 
then  with  us."  He  "reproduced  the  eloquence 
of  Pinkney,  with  the  cogency  of  Wirt."  After 
the  speech,  "amidst  the  wildest  applause,  the 
three  years  of  arbitrary  arrogance  were  buried 
beneath  the  reprobation  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,"  for  the  "popular  branch  of  Con 
gress  121  rose  above  all  debasing  thought  to  lis 
ten  to  the  teachings"  of  Davis.  "It  is  due  to 
the  memory  of  Henry  Winter  Davis,"  Cox 
adds,  that  "the  new  generation  should  know 
and  appreciate  the  courageous  and  the  intel 
lectual  stamina  of  that  most  gifted  orator." 

The  House  agreed  to  Davis's  amendment  by 
a  vote  of  75  to  64,  but  the  Senate  refused  to  con 
cur  therewith.  The  committee  of  conference 
failed  to  agree,  and  Davis  reported  for  them, 
on  March  3,122  advocating  the  failure  of  the 
whole  bill,  rather  than  the  withdrawal  of  a 
provision  "touching  so  nearly  the  right  of 
every  citizen  to  his  personal  liberty  and  the 
very  endurance  of  republican  institutions." 


338       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

The  committee  recommended  that  this  law  be 
left  "standing  as  a  broken  dike  in  the  midst 
of  the  rising  flood  of  lawless  power  around  us, 
to  show  to  this  generation  how  high  that  flood 
of  lawless  power  has  risen,  in  only  three  years 
of  civil  war,  as  a  warning  to  those  who  are  to 
come  after  us,  as  an  awakening  to  those  who 
are  now  with  us."  He  would  permit  no  item 
of  the  bill  to  pass,  not  even  the  appropriation 
for  the  insane,  and  as  the  House  agreed  with 
him,  the  bill  failed.123 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  IX. 

1.  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  113. 

2.  Nicolay  and  Hay  say  that  Lincoln  did  all  in  his  power  to 
heal  the  breach  with  Davis,  but  elicit  this  as  their  only  proof. 

3.  War  of  Rebellion  Off.     Recs.,  Series  3,  vol.  3,  p.  877. 

4.  Outcome  of  the  Civil  War,  p.  73. 

5.  On  December  15. 

6.  Vide  McCarthy,  Lincoln's  Plan  of  Reconstruction,  p.  224. 

7.  On  January  29. 

8.  McCarthy,  p.  57,  animadverts  to  the  fact  that  Davis  alone 
of  those  who  spoke   approved  the  action  of  the   military  gov 
ernor.     On  December  17  Davis  voted  with  the  majority,  when, 
by  a  vote  of  67  to  90,  the  House  condemned  Harrington's  Re 
solves  condemning  arbitrary  arrests.     On  January  n  he  intro 
duced  a  bill  requiring  certain  persons  to  take  the  oath  of  alle 
giance. 

9.  This    proclamation    accompanied    the    President's    annual 
message  to  Congress  and  surprised  the  people.     It  offered  am 
nesty  to  the  majority  of  those  in  rebellion,  upon  their  taking  an 
oath  to  support  the  Union  in  the  future  as  well  as  the  legisla 
tion    and   proclamations     which    had     been     made     concerning 
slavery.     When   at  least  one-tenth  of  the  voters  of  any  State 
should  take  such  an  oath  and  should  re-establish  a  republican 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         339 

form  of  government,  that  government  would  be  recognized  by 
the  Federal  authority.  The  proclamation  further  stated  that 
Lincoln  would  welcome  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  any  such 
State.  In  his  message  Lincoln  defended  the  proclamation  as 
constitutional  and  wise.  In  his  comprehensive  and  fair  life  of 
Lincoln,  in  the  American  Statesmen  Series,  Morse  (vol.  2,  p. 228) 
does  not  sufficiently  recognize  the  constitutional  objection  of 
Davis  and  those  who  agreed  with  him  to  the  President's  taking 
upon  him  to  "guarantee''  to  a  State  a  "republican  form  of  gov 
ernment,"  rather  than  leaving  this  guarantee  to  Congress. 

10.  On   June   29   he   moved   again   to   lay  on   the   table   the 
whole  subject  of  representatives  from  Arkansas,  and  won  by  a 
vote  of  80  to  46,  while  56  members  did  not  vote.     On  May  23 
he  objected  to  paying  a  Virginia  contestant  who  held  a  Federal 
office,  as,  if  he  were  allowed  his  seat,  he  would  have  been  al 
lowed  only  one  salary. 

11.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  343. 

12.  Davis  maintained  that  the  Constitution  meant  that  "the 
forfeiture  worked  must  be  effected  during  life,"  while  Cox  had 
argued  that  "the  forfeiture,  when  worked,  shall  endure  for  the 
life   of  the  party."     Davis   replied  that  "attainder  worked   no 
forfeiture,  after  the  death  of  the  party,  except  by  the  corrup 
tion  of  blood."     Otherwise,   Congress  would  be  able  to  confis 
cate  lands  for  other  crimes,  but  not  for  treason,   and  for  that 
crime  could  put  a  man  to  death  and  seize  his  personal  property, 
but  not  his  lands,  and  the  Constitution  would  sanction  the  "un- 
republican  discrimination  between  real  and  personal  property." 

13.  Sherman's  Recollections,  vol.  i,  p.  359. 

14.  On  March  22. 

15.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  368.     4  Rhodes,  485,  refers  to 
Davis  as  "an  orator  and  a  man  of  brilliant  parts,  who  thought 
the   President's   scheme   neither   coherent   nor   orderly,   and   ob 
jected  to  it  strongly  because  it  did  not  contain  a  sufficient  guar 
anty   for   the   abolition   of   slavery,"   who   "made    an   energetic 
speech."     4  Pierce's  Sumner,  217,  calls  the  Davis-Wade  bill  as 
liberal  as  the  President's  policy,  "more  conservative  in  requir 
ing  a  larger  proportion  of  voters,  and  wiser,  as  well  as  juster, 
in  enforcing,  as  a  peremptory  condition  of  restoration,  perpetual 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  States." 

16.  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  116,  speak  of  it  as  a  "speech  of  ex 
traordinary    energy.     Without   hesitation,    he    declared    it    (the 


340       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

bill)  a  test  and  standard  of  anti-slavery  orthodoxy,  and  asserted 
boldly  that  Congress  and  Congress  alone  had  the  power  to  re 
vive  the  reign  of  law  in  territory  which,  through  rebellion,  had 
put  itself  outside  law."  They  assert  that  in  the  preamble  to 
the  bill  (p.  115)  Davis  expressed,  with  "habitual  boldness  and 
lucidity,"  his  "fundamental  thesis  that  the  rebellious  States 
were  out  of  the  Union."  This,  of  course,  is  extremely  inaccu 
rate.  But  Burgess  (Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  18) 
speaks  of  the  Davis-Wade  plan  as  "nearer  to  some  doctrine  on 
reconstruction"  than  Lincoln's,  and  states  that  the  bill  contained 
a  "true  theory,"  in  claiming  reconstruction  to  be  a  legislative 
problem,  in  requiring  loyalty  to  the  United  States  of  a  majority 
of  the  white  males  as  a  basis  of  local  government,  and  in  as 
serting  a  power  to  abolish  slavery  within  the  limits  of  the  se 
ceding  States,  dealing  with  these  as  territories,  or  districts,  sub 
ject  to  the  exclusive  authority  of  the  central  government.  The 
theory  of  the  bill  was  "sound  political  science,  and  the  Presi 
dent  ought  to  have  heeded  its  teachings." 

17.  Reprinted  in  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  114. 

18.  See  Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopedia,  1864,  p.  293. 

19.  S.   S.   Cox,   Three   Decades,  435,   says  Davis's  bill,   like 
Lincoln's,    had    the    defect    of   being    "based    on    the    policy    of 
forced  emancipation." 

20.  Outcome  of  the  Civil  War,  139.     An  illustration  of  hero 
worship  is  shown  in  Hosmer's  sentence:  "In  spite  of  the  bitter 
ness,  Lincoln's  all-abounding  magnanimity  wrapped  Davis  with 
in  his  regard.     The  President  could  not  win  him,  but  he  stead 
fastly  endured  striking  a  return  blow."    Vide,  6  Schouler's  U.  S. 
469.     9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  119,  say  Lincoln  refused  to  exercise 
influence  on  this  debate. 

21.  4  Rhodes,   485;    Appleton   Annual    Cyclopedia,    1864,   p. 
307;  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  120. 

22.  2  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  42. 

23.  Vide  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,   115,  who  claim  that  Davis's 
design  was  to  put  a  stop  to  the  work  of  reconstruction  which 
Lincoln  had  begun. 

24.  Vol.  i,  p.  361. 

25.  On  December   17  he  reported  favorably  a  resolution  to 
have  10,000  extra  copies  printed  of  the  papers  on  foreign  affairs 
which  accompanied  the  President's  message.     On  December  19 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         341 

he  secured  the  passage  by  the  House  of  a  resolution  concerning 
the  activities  of  the  French  in  Mexico.  Vide  Schouler,  vol.  6, 
p.  432. 

26.  On  February  4  he  favored  printing  ten  thousand  extra 
copies  of  the  diplomatic  correspondence,  as  Seward  wished  done, 
so  as  to  state  our  case  fully  and  authentically  to  the  nations  of 
Europe.     On  March  2  he  introduced  a  resolution  requesting  the 
President  to  send  the  Mexican  and  Venezuelan  correspondence 
to  the  House,  and  on  the  i6th  he  moved  to  have  referred  to  the 
Committee   on    Foreign    Affairs    the    message    of   the    President 
concerning  the  claims  against  Ecuador. 

27.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  395.     Appleton's  Annual  Cyclo 
pedia,  1864,  p.  314. 

28.  4  Rhodes  U.  S.,  471;  7  Nicolay  and  Hay,  407. 

29.  Vide  4  Pierce's  Sumner,  193. 

30.  Despatches  of  April  22  and  May  2. 

31.  On  June  4  and  6. 

32.  On  June  27. 

33.  4  Nicolay  and  Hay,  407,  say  that  Davis  did  not  "con 
vince  a  considerable  portion  of  the  public  that  the  course  of  the 
Government  (they  mean  the  President)    lacked  dignity  or  fair 
ness." 

34.  On  January  28  he  introduced  a  bill  to  regulate  dismis 
sions  of  officers  in  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  on  February  10  he 
sarcastically  proposed  that  the  President  order  General  Lee  not 
to  move  on  Washington  until  the  appeals  from  the  draft  were 
decided.     With  Thaddeus  Stevens,  in  this  month,  he  opposed  as 
premature  the  passage  of  the  bill  establishing  the  rank  of  lieu 
tenant-general  (I  Elaine,  Twenty  Years,  510).     On  April  21  he 
moved  to  repay  Baltimore  for  money  expended  on  the  fortifica 
tions  about  that  city.     On  July  i  he  moved  to  concur  in  amend 
ments  to  the  Enrollment  bill. 

35.  On  February  10. 

36.  In  like  spirit  he  urged  on  April  30  and  May  25  that  the 
negro  regiments  be  not  put  on  a  different  basis  as  to  support  of 
families  from  the  white  regiments. 

37.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  351. 

38.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  351. 

39.  On  July  i. 


342       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

40.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  410. 

41.  He  regretted  that  illness  had  kept  him  from  any  earlier 
discussion  of  the  bill. 

42.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  353. 

43.  St.  Mary's,  Charles,  Somerset,  Worcester,  Howard,  Balti 
more.     Vide  Brackett,  Negro  in  Maryland,  pp.  254-262. 

44.  In  Howard  the  vote  was   55  for   and   1397   against;    in 
Kent  74  for,  1502  against;  in  Baltimore  684  for  and  5364  against. 

45.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  397.     Gideon  Welles  heard  him 
and   wrote   in    his   Diary    (vol.   2,    p.   9)    that  the    speech   was 
"declamatory,  eloquent;  but  the  debate  did  not  please  me,  nor 
the  subject." 

46.  I  Diary,  482. 

47.  I  Diary,  479.     October  31,  1863.     When  Admiral  Dupont 
died,  on  June  23,  1865,  Welles  wrote   (II  Diary,  320),  with  a 
vindictiveness  that  went  beyond  the  grave,  that,  in  October,  1863, 
Dupont  prepared  an  "adroit  letter,"  in  concert  with  Davis,  to  be 
used  as  an  assault  on  Welles  in  Congress,  but  that  Welles  an 
swered  in  such  manner  "as  to  close  up  Dupont  and  Davis  got 
more- than  he  asked." 

48.  II  Diary,  117,  118.     August  23,  1864. 

49.  Welles  had  written  as  early  as  January  6  (I  Diary,  505) 
that  he  heard  of  Davis  as  being  among  those  "cavilling  and  ex 
erting  themselves  to  bear  down  upon  the  Engineer  in   Chief." 
Of   the   speech  on  February  25   he  wrote   that    (i   Diary,   531) 
Davis    "flung    his    vindictive    spite    more    malignantly    at    Fox, 
whom  he  called  a  cotton-spinner,  than  at  me."     F.  P.  Blair  an_- 
swered  Davis  on  February  27,  regretting  his  absence  from  the 
House  at  the  time  and  calling  him  a  Jacobin. 

50.  Dupont  commanded  the  expedition   against  Port  Royal, 
and  wrote  Davis  on  the  eve  of  the  attack  on  Hilton  Head,  on 
November  6,  1861.     The  letter  is  printed  in  the  Army  and  Navy 
Journal,  vol.  51,  p.  1237,  May  30,  1914. 

51.  On  April  n  Davis  introduced  a  bill  to  establish  a  board 
of  naval  administration.     On  May  16  he  asked  for  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  court-martial  on  Commodore  Charles  Wilkes.     On 
May   13    Admiral    Shubrick  told  Welles     that    Dupont,     under 
Davis's  "control,"  was  writing  a  book.      (2  Diary,  30.) 

52.  On  June  6  he  expressed  the  wish  to  legalize  the  acts  of 
the  United  States  District  Court  for  Virginia,  which  is  required 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         343 

by  law  to  meet  at  Richmond,  but  which  really  met  in  Alexan 
dria. 

53.  On  January  12. 

54.  On  April  2. 

55.  In  a  contest  between  State  and  National  banks,  he  wished 
the  support  of  that  bank,  and  was  opposed  to  the  principle  of 
individual  responsibility,  as  being  a  needless  trammeling  of  in 
nocent  persons. 

56.  On  April  4. 

57.  On  July  2  he  proposed  a  ten  per  cent,  tax  on  State  bank 
notes,  and  when  that  proposal  failed,  a  three  per  cent,  tax  on 
the  average  amount  of  notes  annually  in  circulation,  but  failed 
to  carry  that  proposition  also. 

58.  On  June  8. 

59.  On  June  9  he  expressed  the  belief  that  "in  this  country 
fortunes  are  ephemeral.'     On  July  2  he  opposed  the  grant  of  the 
hall  of  the  House  for  an  Indepndence  Day  celebration  of  the 
National  Democratic  Association,  saying  he  never  spoke  in  the 
House  except  on  a  legislative  subject,  and  never  voted  to  allow 
any  outside  body  to  use  the  hall. 

60.  On  June  9  he  objected  to  giving  the  Select  Committee  on 
a  New  York  and  Washington  Railroad  leave  to  report  at  any 
particular  time,  as  the  bill  might  seriously  affect  local  interest 
in  Maryland. 

61.  On  April  9. 

62.  On  May  6. 

63.  He  regretted  that  Dawes  was  absent. 

64.  He  quoted  Harry  Percy's  speech,  "I  remember  when  the 
fight  was  done,"  and  sneered  at  Dawes's  reference  to  the  open 
ing  of  the  Massachusetts  elections  with  prayer,   and   reminded 
Ganson,  a  Democrat  from  New  York,  who  had  spoken  against 
Davis,  of  past  Democratic  frauds  in  Louisiana,  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania. 

65.  After  this  speech,  B.   G.   Harris  made   an   attack   upon 
Davis,  which  the  latter  ignored.     Harris  said  that  "Massachu 
setts,  in  carrying  out  outrages,  was  but  acting  upon  principles 
which  the  member  from  Baltimore  City  was  prominent  in  inau 
gurating  in   Maryland   and   of  which   he   reaped  the   personal 
benefit,  which  it  was  calculated  through  force  and  violence  to 


344       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

confer."  He  was  a  "slanderer."  The  Speaker  then  called 
Harris  to  order.  When  the  latter  resumed  his  attack  he  said 
that  Davis  "consumed  an  hour  in  giving  history,  if  statements 
so  false  can  properly  be  called  history,  of  himself  and  his  Plug 
Uglys.  Three  times  has  he  come  to  this  House  by  the  aid  of 
bludgeons  and  daggers  of  the  Plug  Uglys,  and  he  now  occupies 
his  place  here  by  favor  of  the  bayonets  of  brutal  tyrants." 

66.  Welles  knew  nothing  of  it  (2  Diary,  98). 

67.  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  122;  Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopedia, 
1864,  p.  307. 

673.  Kernan  vs.  City  of  Portland,  223  U.  S.  Reports,  118  at 
151.  See  Wm.  W.  Pierson  on  Texas  vs.  White,  19  S.W.  Hist. 
Quar.  2,  22. 

68.  Vol.  IV,  p.  219. 

69.  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  124. 

70.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  415.     6  Schouler,  470,  says  the 
Davis-Wade  manifesto  was  "violent,  and  insinuated  what  was 
wholy  unfair,"  that  Lincoln  "meant  to  reconstruct  the  South  so 
as  to  hold  electoral  votes  in  pledge."     Riddle's  Wade,  p.  259, 
calls  the  manifesto  an  "admirable  performance,  saving  its  tone, 
reviewing  the  whole  ground"  and  showing  the  "world  for  the 
first  time  how  widely   asunder    the    President     and     Congress 
were." 

71.  Burgess,  Reconstruction,  p.  15.     Coffin's  Lincoln,  at  page 
431,  says  more  wisely:  "In  their  anger  the  authors  of  the  mani 
festo  overlooked  the  one  question  foremost  in  the  minds  of  the 
President — the  constitutionality  of  the  act." 

72.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  428. 

73.  2  Welles  Diary,  98. 

74.  2  Welles  Diary,  96. 

75.  Vol.  9,  pp.  124-126. 

76.  McCarthy,  p.  278. 

77.  On  page  283  McCarthy  repeats  Nicolay  and  Hay's  charge 
that  Davis,  "though  treated  with  extreme  fairness,  not  to  say 
generosity,  by  the  President,  pursued  toward  the  Administration 
a  course  of  consistent  hostility."     Disappointment  at  not  being 
placed  in  the  Cabinet  and  Davis's  "sense  of  public  duty  led  him 
to  think  Lincoln  scarcely  entitled  to  courteous  treatment."     For 
getting  that  the  manifesto  was  issued,  because  Congress  was  not 
in  session,  McCarthy  continues  by  saying  that,  if  Davis  believed 
all  he  said,  he  should  have  impeached  Lincoln.     The  political 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         345 

departments  of  government,  according  to  McCarthy,  entered  on 
a  struggle  for  power.  ''Congress  had  been  defeated,  and  its 
discomfited  leaders  sought  to  relieve  their  feelings  by  railing  at 
the  President."  These  sentiments  are,  of  course,  unfair  and  the 
statement  is  incorrect. 

78.  2  Elaine,  Twenty  Years,  42. 

79.  9   Nicolay  and   Hay,    114,   insist,   with  great  unfairness, 
that  the  breach  between   Lincoln   and  Davis   was   entirely   the 
fault  of  the  latter.     "In  spite  of  all  the  efforts  which  the  Presi 
dent  made,"  they  write,  "to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  Mr.  Davis, 
the    difference   between    them   constantly   widened.     Mr.    Davis 
grew  continually  more  confirmed  in  his  attitude  of  hostility  to 
the   President.     He  became   one   of   the  most   severe   and   least 
generous  critics  of  the  Administration  in  Congress.     He  came  at 
last  to  consider  the  President  as  unworthy  of  even   respectful 
treatment,  and  Mr.  Seward,  in  the  midst  of  his  energetic  and 
aggressive  campaign  against  European  unfriendliness,  was  con 
tinually  attacked  by  him  as  a  truckler  to  foreign  powers  and 
little  less  than  a  traitor  to  his  country.     The  President,  how 
ever,  was  a  man  so  persistently  and  incorrigibly  just  that,  even 
in  the  fact  of  this  provocation,  he  never  lost  his  high  opinion  of 
Mr.  Davis's  ability,  nor  his  confidence  in  his  inherent  good  in 
tentions." 

80.  9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  114.     Coffin's  Lincoln,  p.  464,  states 
that  when  Fox,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  said  to  Lin 
coln:  "I  am  glad  that"  Davis  "has  been  defeated.     He  has  ma 
liciously  assailed  the  Navy  for  the  last  two  years."    Lincoln  re 
sponded:  "I  cannot  quite  agree  with  you.     You  have  more  of 
the  feeling  of  personal  resentment  than  I.     Perhaps  I  have  too 
little  of  it;  but  I  never  thought  it  paid.     A  man  has  no  time  to 
spend  half  his  life  in  quarrels.     If  any  man  ceases  to  attack  me, 
I  never  remember  the  past  against  him." 

81.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXVII. 

82.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXII. 

83.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  384. 

84.  2  Diary,  30. 

85.  Capt.   H.  P.  Goddard,   in  Baltimore  Sunday  Herald  of 
March  8,   1903,   repeating  an  anecdote  told  him  by  Joseph  M. 
Gushing,  Esq.     James  M.  Scovel,  in  38  Overland  Monthly,  204, 
gives  a  different  version  of  this  story. 

86.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  415. 

87.  4  Pierce's  Sumner,  251. 


346       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

88.  4  Rhodes,  518.     New  York  Sun  of  June  30,  1889,  printed 
letters  from  Davis  on  August  19  and  25,  and  from  others  written 
in  the  hope  of  forcing  Lincoln's  withdrawal  from  the  Presiden 
tial  canvass  (9  Nicolay  and  Hay,  367). 

89.  James   M.   Scovel,    in    38    Overland  Monthly,   205,   says 
that  Davis  was  present  at  a  White  House  reception  during  the 
campaign,    and    that,    on    seeing   him,    Lincoln    said   to    Scovel: 
"This  looks  well  for  us.     Henry  Winter  Davis  has  not  called  at 
the  White  House  till  now,  during  the  three  years  past." 

90.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  428.     Mr.  J.  F.  Essary,  in  his 
Maryland  in  National  History,  at  page  240,  states  that  Montgom 
ery  Blair  retired  from  Lincoln's  Cabinet  in  order  that  Davis's 
support  of  the  Republican  ticket  might  be  secured  in  the  Presi 
dential  campaign  of  1864.     Mr.  John  T.  Graham,  who  was  so 
intimate  a  friend  of  Davis  that  he  made  the  fair  copy  for  the 
press  of  the  Davis-Wade  manifesto,  stated  in  December,   1915, 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  any  such  arrangement,  and  that  his  re 
lations  to  Davis  during  that  time  were  so  close  that  it  was  im 
possible  that  he  could  have  been  ignorant  of  the  matter. 

91.  Davis  also  referred  to  the  riot  in  Washington  in   1857, 
and  to  Governor  Ligon's  course  of  action,  as  proving  that  Dem 
ocrats  had  no  objection  to  the  use  of  force  at  elections  when 
such  use  would  redound  to  their  advantage. 

92.  Lincoln  referred  neither  to  his  Proclamation  nor  to  the 
manifesto  in  his  message.     Burgess,  Reconstruction,  18. 

93.  On  December  5. 

94.  McCarthy,  page  340. 

95.  Davis's  report,  which  accompanied  the  resolution,  after 
a  careful  study  of  our  foreign  relations,  claimed  that  the  Presi 
dent's  action  was  both  "novel  and  inadmissible"   (Speeches  and 
Addresses,  p.  456).     He  maintained  that  "the  will  of  the  people, 
expressed  in  legislative  form  by  the  legislative  powers,  can  de 
clare   authoritatively  the  foreign   policy  of  the   nation;   to   the 
President    is    committed    the    diplomatic    measures    for    enforc 
ing  it." 

96.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  472. 

97.  The  Republican. 

98.  Spalding  said  he  had  voted  not  to  lay  the  resolution  on 
the  table,  but  was  unwilling  to  lend  aid  to  a  direct  attack  upon 
Lincoln;  Dawes  jested  about  the  matter;  Littlejohn  stated  that 
he  voted  to  lay  on  the  table  the  resolution,  because  Davis  had 
moved  the  previous  question  without  debate. 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         347 

99.  Stevens,  with  Davis's  consent,  substituted  Executive  De 
partment  for  the  President. 

100.  2  Diary,  202. 

101.  On  January  6,  1865,  Welles  wrote   (2  Diary,  224)   that 
Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  in  Washington,  and,  "allied  with  Wade, 
Chandler  and  Davis,  he  will  not  only  aid,  but  breed  mischief." 
Yet,  curiously,  Welles  wrote  on  January  18  of  the  capture  of 
Fort  Fisher,  that  (2  Diary,  227)    Davis,  "who  for  some  cause, 
avoids  me,  is  not  satisfied.     I  do  not  doubt  that  he  is  glad  we 
have  succeeded,  but  he  does  not  like  it  that  any  credit  should 
even  remotely  come  to  me." 

102.  On  January  18,  1865. 

103.  Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  233,  234. 

104.  On  January  19. 

105.  On  February  27. 

106.  He   stated  that  Senator   Morrill,  of  Vermont,  was  the 
ablest  financier  in  either  branch  of  Congress,  whom  he  had  met 
in  eight  years  of  service. 

107.  In  this  speech  he  spoke  of  the  appointment  of  cadets, 
saying    that   the    Constitution    conferred    this    power    upon    the 
President  but,  to  stop  attacks  on  the  Military  and  Naval  Acad 
emies,  the  Administration  had  made  a  rule  that  the  members  of 
Congress  should  be  called  upon  for  recommendations,  and  thus 
apportioned  the  appointments  not  among  the  representatives,  but 
among  the  Congressional  districts.     After  Davis  had  spoken  for 
some  time,  Blaine  moved  that  the  House  adjourn,  as  Davis  was 
not  in  "a  favorable  physical  condition."     He  was  unwell  again 
a  week  afterwards  and  was  excused  for  absence  on  account  of 
illness  on  February  7  and  8. 

108.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  480. 

io8a.  Gustavus  Vasa  Fox,  closely  connected  with  Montgom 
ery  Blair  by  marriage. 

109.  Welles  wrote  on  that  day  (2  Diary,  236)  that  "the  move 
was  sneaking  and   disingenuous,  very  much  in  character  with 
Davis,  who  is  unsurpassed  for  intrigue  and  has  great  talents 
for  it."     Welles  added  that  the  English  were  thinking  of  abol 
ishing   their   admiralty   board,    and    that    Schenck   was    one   of 
Davis's  clique  and  had  Speaker  Colfax's  sympathy. 

no.  Welles  wrote  (2  Diary,  237),  Davis's  renewed  attempt 
to  put  the  Navy  in  commission  was  decided  against  him.  "He 
and  his  associates  had  intrigued  skilfully  and  counted  in  vain 
on  Democratic  support"  (Speeches  and  Addresses,  512). 


348       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

in.  When  a  bill  concerning  the  destruction  of  the  Alabama 
was  discussed,  on  February  28,  he  moved  that  Gushing  and  his 
men  have  the  value  of  the  Albemarle  given  them,  as  sinking  it 
"was  an  infinitely  more  brilliant  service  than  the  destruction  of 
the  Alabama."  He  objected  to  the  pay  department  of  the  Navy 
bill,  because  it  doubled  officers  and  appointed  paymasters,  with 
out  abolishing  navy  agents. 

112.  McCarthy,  page  295. 

113.  Vide  2  Welles  Diary,  239,  February  10,  1865.     "Wade 
and  Davis  are  leading  spirits  in  the  radical  movement  and  are 
inimical    to    the    Administration"    (247),    February    22.     "Hale 
leads  the  radicals  in  the  Senate,  and  Davis  in  the  House.  Davis 
has  far  greater  ability  than   Garfield  or  Schenck,  who  gather 
around  him.     They  assume  to  dictate  to  the  Administration  and 
dislike  Seward." 

114.  On   January    16,    1893,   Gen.   J.   D.   Cox   wrote  Rhodes 
(5  U.  S.  51)  that  in  February,  1865,  he  was  in  Washington,  and, 
at  Garfield's  invitation,  dined  with  Schenck  and  Davis.     "The 
berating  of  Lincoln  by  the  two  last  named  was  something  to  take 
one's  breath  away.     Garfield  laughed  at  it  and  at  them,  as  if  it 
were  a  kind  of  conversational  pryotechnics,  but  I  was  utterly 
dismayed."     Nicolay  and   Hay   (vol.  9,  p.  452)    in   after  years 
had  not  forgotten  their  bitterness,   and  spoke  of  the  speech  of 
February  21   as  one  in  which  Davis  "rallied  but  feebly  to  the 
support  of  his  discomfited  colleagues.     His  short  speech  was  no 
ticeable  only  for  its  continued  accusation  of  the  President  as  a 
selfish  usurper  and  for  his  ill-natured  flings  at  his  Republican 
colleagues  of  the  House,  who  had  changed  their  minds  or  re 
fused  to  vote  with  him,  as  being  influenced  by  the  will  of  the 
President."     With  a  much  more  "ill-natured  fling"  than  any  of 
which  Davis  ever  used  and  one  without  good  foundations,  they 
continue:   "With   all    his   recognized   logic   and   eloquence,   Mr. 
Davis  was  one  of  those  men  who  possessed  the  comforting  fac 
ulty  of  seeing  that  everybody  but  himself  was  arbitrary,  selfish 
and  subservient,"  and  they  maintain  that  the  House  was  unwill 
ing  to  follow  the  committee  or  Davis,"  since  neither  could  ap 
parently  frame  a  plan  to  suit  itself   (sic)    for  a  single  week," 
and  since  it  was  close  to  the  end  of  the  sesssion. 

115.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  529. 

1 1 6.  Vide  McCarthy,  p.  311;  Hosmer,  Outcome  of  Civil  War, 
226. 

117.  On  March  2. 


CHAPTER  IX— 1863-1865         349 

118.  On  March  i,  when  a  tariff  bill  was  debated,  he  moved 
an  amendment  on  the  part  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
(declared  out  of  order  by  the  Chair),  which,  he  said,  secured 
freedom  of  exports,  but  which  really  provided  against  arbitrary 
prevention   of  persons   or   goods  leaving  the  country.     On   the 
same  day  he  spoke  concerning  a  claim  of  Stewart  Gwynne,  an 
employee  of  the  Treasury  Department,  for  printing  presses  to 
print  money  in  a  particular  way. 

119.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  538. 

120.  Three  Decades,  233. 

121.  Page  236. 

122     Speeches  and  Addresses,  551. 

123.  George  W.  Julian,  in  his  political  Recollections,  p.  246, 
wrote:  "Davis  was  a  man  of  genius.  Among  the  famous  men 
in  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  he  had  no  superior  as  a  writer, 
debater  and  orator.  He  was  a  brilliant  man,  whose  devotion 
to  his  country  at  this  crisis  was  a  passion,  while  his  hostility  to 
the  President's  policy  was  as  sincere  as  it  was  intense." 


350       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

CHAPTER  X. 
LAST  DAYS  (1865). 

After  Davis  retired  from  Congress,  he  re 
turned  to  the  practice  of  law,  but  the  fire 
burned  within  his  breast  and  he  became  more 
radical. 

On  May  27,  he  wrote  a  friend l  in  Washing 
ton,  making,  in  his  letter,  a  formal  declaration 
of  his  opinion  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage  as  a 
necessity.  Although  his  health  had  been  im 
paired  by  his  labors  in  Congress,  his  spirit 
was  as  keen  as  ever  and  his  zeal  as  ardent  for 
a  successful  reconstruction  of  the  Southern 
States.  He  felt  that  the  "future  of  the  nation 
is  summed  up  in  the  restoration  of  political 
power  to  the  States  lately  in  rebellion."  He 
had  no  knowledge  as  to  Johnson's  policy;  but 
felt  that  the  condition  of  the  problem  awere 
plain."  The  President  must  take  the  initiative 
and  Congress  would  be  likely  to  recognize  the 
State  governments,  which  he  should  allow 
to  be  organized.  No  governments  existed  in 
"any  State  which  rebelled ;  none  can  be  organ 
ized,  legally,  without  the  assent  of  the  United 
States,  and  no  steps  to  secure  that  assent  can  be 
taken  without  his  permission;"  for  he  may  re 
fuse  to  allow  any  convention  to  be  held.  If  he 
does  so,  "things  will  await  the  solution  of  Con- 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  351 

gress."  "If  he  permit  the  aggregate  white 
population  of  the  South"  to  vote,  he  will 
"place  the  sceptre  in  the  hands  from  which  we 
have  just  wrested  the  sword."  He  may  at 
tempt  "to  discriminate  the  loyal  from  the  dis 
loyal"  and,  then,  a  "mere  handful  of  the  popu 
lation  will  remain,  wholly  incompetent  to 
form,  or  maintain  a  State  government,"  con 
stituting  in  fact  "an  odious  oligarchy." 

Davis  saw  that  the  "whole  mass  of  the  popu 
lation  of  the  South  has  given  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  rebellion.  The  Union  men  of  the  South 
preferred  union  and  peace  to  disunion;  they 
deplored  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  they 
never  hesitated  a  moment  which  side  to  take. 
If  there  was  to  be  war,  they  were  for  their 
States  and  against  the  United  States.  There 
was  no  respectable  number  of  Union  men, 
willing  to  aid  the  United  Sates  in  compelling 
submission  to  the  Constitution,  and  there  is 
none  now.  It  is  certainly  to  this  class  of  the 
white  population  that  we  must  look  for  aid, 
in  restoring  civil  government  in  these  States, 
but  it  is  a  great  delusion  to  suppose  them 
either  bold  or  strong  enough  to  meet  and  defy 
the  united  and  energetic  faction  of  revolution 
ists  which  drove  them  into  rebellion."  If  the 
Southern  whites  are  "restored  to  political 
power,"  they  will  be  interested  in  repudiating 
the  public  debt,  which  was  "created  to  sub- 


352       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

jugate  them  to  the  laws,"  and  in  restor 
ing  slavery.  To  avoid  the  danger  of  the 
ex-Confederates  returning  to  power  in  the 
nation,  "the  State  governments  in  the  South 
must  be  placed  in  hands  interested  to  maintain 
the  authority  of  the  United  States.  This  can 
be  done,  only  by  recognizing  the  negro  popu 
lation  as  an  integral  part  of  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States,  and  by  refusing  to  permit  any 
State  government  to  be  organized,  on  any 
other  basis  than  universal  suffrage  and  equal 
ity  before  the  law."  He  doubted  whether  a 
"government  can  be  recognized  as  republican 
in  form,  which  excludes  from  suffrage  and 
equal  laws,"  half  or  more  of  the  people  and 
the  negroes  form  that  portion  of  the  popula 
tion  of  several  States.  He  was  sure  that  the 
white  people,  loyal  or  disloyal,  of  the  "States 
which  rebelled"  would  not  "reorganize  gov 
ernments,"  on  the  basis  of  negro  suffrage.  He 
found  no  "State  governments  and  no  voters  in 
any  of  the  rebel  States,"  but  only  "States  and 
people  of  those  States,  both  known  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States."  Negroes, 
Davis  continued,  "are  as  integral  a  part  of  the 
people  of  those  States  as  the  whites.  Both  are 
citizens;  neither  has  a  right  to  exclude  the 
other;  neither  can  speak  in  the  name  of  the 
State  for  the  other."  The  proper  solution  of 
the  problem  is  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  people 


CHAPTER  X— 186.5  353 

of  the  State,  black  and  white  together.  If 
Johnson  is  not  willing  to  adopt  this  method, 
the  problem  will  not  be  solved  rightly  and 
then  it  "threatens  to  generate  a  barren  and 
bitter  agitation,  sure  to  result  disastrously  to 
those  who  propose  the  political  enfranchise 
ment  of  the  negroes  and  to  consolidate  the 
union  of  the  enemies  of  the  government  in  the 
loyal  States  into  an  irresistible  power."  Con 
gress  ought  to  recognize  no  government,  but 
such  as  is  organized  on  the  basis  of  universal 
suffrage.  Davis  felt  that  the  "shame  and 
folly  of  deserting  the  negroes"  was  "equaled 
by  the  wisdom  of  recognizing  and  protecting 
their  power."  They  were  more  fit  for  the 
franchise  than  the  secessionists  and  no  more 
ignorant  "than  large  masses  of  the  white  voters 
of  the  South,  or  the  rabble  which  is  tumbled 
on  the  wharves  of  New  York  and  run  straight 
to  the  polls."  His  conviction  was  that,  "if 
organized  and  led  by  men  having  their  confi 
dence,  the  negroes  will  prove  as  powerful  and 
loyal  at  the  polls,  as  they  have  already,  in  the 
face  of  equal  clamor  and  equal  prejudice, 
proved  themselves  under  such  leaders  on  the 
field  of  battle." 

As  early  as  June  30,  Welles  wrote  in  his 
Diary2  that  Wade  was  mollified,  but  that 
Davis  was  "intending  to  improve  the  oppor 
tunity  of  delivering  a  Fourth  of  July  oration, 


354       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

to  take  ground  distinctly  antagonistic  to  the 
Administration  on  the  question  of  negro  suf 
frage."  This  oration  at  Chicago  was  Davis's 
last  great  appearance  in  public.3  The  audi 
ence  was  the  largest  gathered  in  the  whole 
country  on  that  day,  and  ten  thousand  people 
were  estimated  to  have  assembled  to  hear  the 
orator  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Sanitary  Fair. 
The  Mayor  of  the  city  presided,  and  Lyman 
Trumbull  headed  the  list  of  vice-presidents. 

After  the  reading  of  Lincoln's  Emancipation 
Proclamation  and  his  last  Inaugural  Address, 
and  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Davis 
was  introduced,  and  congratulated  his  hearers 
that  that  Declaration  was  now  "true  in  right 
and  true  in  fact,  from  one  end  of  this  broad 
land  to  the  other."  He  reminded  the  audi 
ence  that  in  1860  the  American  Republic  rest 
ed,  "not  dreaming  of  war,  with  no  weapons  to 
grasp,  with  no  arms  provided,  with  no  army 
organized,  with  no  generals  to  lead  us  save 
those  at  the  plow,  with  no  leaders  but  their 
enemies  in  power,  while  a  deep  and  wide 
spread  conspiracy,  organized  for  years,  was 
preparing  to  strike  what  it  fondly  hoped  was 
the  final  blow  at  the  integrity  of  the  American 
Republic."  When  the  people  realized  this 
last  fact  they  arose  in  arms  for  the  salvation 
of  their  country.  But  in  the  early  days  of  the 
war  there  was  a  hesitation  to  touch  "one  sign 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  355 

of  aristocratic  domination  which  must  not  be 
interfered  with — that  was  slavery."  Gradu 
ally,  however,  "the  popular  heart  caught  the 
real  spirit  of  the  rebellion,"  and  "the  nation 
knew  that  it  was  struggling,  not  only  to  retain 
reluctant  States,  but  to  expunge  from  its  insti 
tutions  that  which  made  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  a  lie  and  a  vain  thing."  Davis 
maintained  that  it  was  "from  that  day"  that 
the  "defenders  of  the  cause,  inspired  by  prin 
ciple,  have  pursued  energetically  the  contest 
in  the  face  of  the  hostility  of  all  the  nations  of 
the  world,  and  loud  predictions  of  failure  here, 
till  that  glorious  consummation  has  been  at 
tained  which  greets  us  here  today."  The  vic 
tory  had  been  obtained  at  a  great  cost.  "When 
contemplating  these  sad  and  yet  ever  glorious 
battle  fields,  everywhere  seen,  wrho  does  not 
deplore  it  with  tears,  that  American  blood  has 
flowed  on  both  sides,  that  it  was  our  brethren 
who  were  led  astray,  ruined,  scourged  to  de 
struction  by  the  Nemesis  of  History,  which 
drives  men  to  work  out  for  themselves  the 
punishment  of  their  own  errors?  Who  does 
not  remember  that  they  are  sons  of  the  same 
forefathers  who  fought  for  that  very  Union 
which  they  attacked  and  we  defended?  Any 
man  who  does  not  remember  this,  lacks  one- 
half  of  the  American  heart." 
He  next  summoned  his  auditors  to  look  back, 


356       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

"that  we  may  be  thankful  for,  and  not  proud 
of  the  things  we  have  accomplished."  Events 
had  proved  that  "secession  is  not  a  peaceful 
remedy,"  that  the  South  can  be  conquered, 
that  the  "bond  of  peace"  can  not  be  preserved 
by  compromise,  that  the  "negro  is  a  man."  He 
had  proved  his  manhood  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  "in  the  line  of  battle,  alongside  of 
armed  white  men,  charging  just  as  deeply  into 
the  heart  of  the  enemy's  ranks  as  his  white 
brethren,  vindicating  his  right  to  manhood  by 
the  exercise  of  the  highest  prerogative  of  man 
—fearlessness  in  the  presence  of  eternity  and 
of  death  which  leads  him  there." 

Another  lesson  learned  was  that  "State 
rights  are  responsible  to  the  bayonet,"  that 
States  are  immortal,  but  State  governments 
that  are  organized  by  men  and  may  be  used 
for  selfish  purposes,  perverted  to  the  purposes 
of  treason  to  defy  the  Union,  are,  by  the  laws 
of  the  United  States,  not  immortal,  but  amen 
able  to  the  laws,  as  men  for  their  acts,  and  die 
by  treason." 

The  results  of  the  war  were  obtained,  not  by 
great  leaders,  though  we  "had,  charged  with 
the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  faithful,  diligent, 
devoted,  and  now  martyred,  servants  of  the 
Republic.  But  they  did  not  initiate  the  move 
ment  which  led  to  this  great  consummation; 
it  sprang  from  the  popular  heart,  which  com- 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  357 

pelled  them  to  make  war;  the  impulse  came 
from  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  they  freely 
poured  out  their  treasure  and  the  blood  need 
ed  to  carry  on  the  war.  It  was  the  people 
wrho  anticipated  it,  their  instinct  dictated  it, 
their  treasure  supported  it,  and  they  demand 
ed  every  measure,  and  sustained,  without  a 
murmur,  every  disappointment,  and  supplied 
money  to  fill  up  every  waste  and  every  loss." 

He  compared  the  war  to  the  "struggle  of  the 
French  republic  against  those  who  sought  its 
overthrow,"  for  "all  Europe  was  opposed  to 
us;  they  hastened  to  vest  our  enemies  with  the 
rights  of  war,  they  threw  open  their  ports  for 
their  privateers;  they  prepared  in  their  ma 
chine  shops  the  materials  for  breaking  our 
blockade;  they  prepared  the  arms  with  which 
our  enemies  fought  us ;  and  for  four  years  they 
fitted  out  ships  of  war  and  manned  them  with 
English  sailors,  to  depredate  on  our  com 
merce."  We  remember  "The  Warfare  of  Or- 
muzd  and  Ahriman,"  when  we  hear  Davis 
say:  "They  thought  our  day  of  doom  was 
come,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  their  error 
proved  our  salvation.  But  we  will  remember 
that  it  was  their  error  and  not  their  merit,  and 
will  visit  its  consequences  upon  them."  Think 
ing  that  "the  great  aegis  of  our  protection 
ceased  to  recover  the  republics  of  America," 
Spain  seized  upon  San  Domingo  and  invaded 


358       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Peru,  while  France  and  England  conspired 
against  Mexico.  Louis  Napoleon,  "with  the 
purpose  of  limiting  our  expansion  and 
strengthening  his  imperial  throne  by  its  coun 
terpart  in  America"  had  set  up  Maximilian 
as  emperor  of  Mexico.  "We  dissembled  our 
indignation  at  this  grave  menace  and  insult 
with  difficulty,  but  for  the  present,  perhaps, 
not  unwisely."  Now,  however,  there  is  no 
longer  need  of  silence,  and  we  should  declare 
that  "the  introduction  of  a  European  prince 
into  an  American  republic,  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  on  its  ruins  a  hereditary  throne,  is' 
an  insolent  defiance  of  the  declaration  of  Pres 
ident  Monroe."  France  must  withdraw  her 
armies,  which,  while  in  Mexico,  are  a  "per 
petual  menace  to  us."  "We  wish  for  no  con 
quests,  but  we  have  established  freedom  here 
and  we  will  have  freedom  here,  and  we  will 
have  freedom  from  here  to  Cape  Horn."  We 
desire  to  observe  all  the  laws  of  neutrality,  and 
we  "are  resolved  that  England  shall  accept 
and  respect  her  own  neutrality  laws." 

The  cause  of  the  war  was  slavery.  "Govern 
ment  by  law  we  secured  by  the  Constitution; 
personal  freedom  we  sacrificed  to  an  existing 
interest,  supposed  to  be  temporary,  admitted 
to  be  wrong,  difficult  of  remedy,  but  to  be  rem 
edied.  But  the  expansion  of  our  territory  in 
spired  that  interest  as  it  grew  in  strength: 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  359 

first,  with  a  desire  for  permanence,  then  with 
a  desire  for  power."  The  addition  of  Florida 
and  Louisiana  caused  the  supporters  of  slavery 
to  determine  to  rule.  It  first  asserted  itself  as 
a  power  in  the  Missouri  Compromise.  "The 
Compromise  of  1850  was  the  recognition  of  its 
equality  with  freedom  in  disposing  of  the  for 
tunes  and  fate  of  the  nation."  In  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  war  in  Kan 
sas  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  it  asserted  its 
power  to  rule.  To  sum  up  the  history  of 
opinion  on  the  matter,  "slavery  was  first 
wrong,  then  excusable,  then  defensible,  then 
defended  by  scriptural,  historical  and  politi 
cal  arguments,  then  advocated  and  vaunted 
as  the  highest  development  of  the  social  organ 
ization."  "The  Southern  ethnology  separatee? 
the  negro  from  the  human  race;  the  Southern 
religion  proclaimed  the  slave  trade  a  mission 
ary  enterprise;  the  new  Southern  morals  pro 
claimed  the  duty  of  holding  the  negro,  for  his 
own  benefit,  as  the  highest  of  moral  obliga 
tions;  the  new  Southern  theory  deduced  the 
highest  proofs  of  the  wisdom  of  God  from  his 
placingtheblackman  in  subjection  to  the  white; 
the  new  Southern  history  made  the  chief  pur 
pose  of  the  Constitution  the  protection  of  this 
interest;  the  new  Southern  political  economy 
professed  to  have  found  in  negro  slavery  that 
organization  of  labor  for  which  the  Old 


360       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

World  had  so  long  striven  in  vain;  the  new 
Southern  philosophy  added  to  Jefferson's 
enumeration  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man 
that  of  the  negro  to  a  master."  The  South 
feared,  lest  the  "intrusion  of  new  ideas  might 
breed  doubts,"  and  so  there  was  found  "a  ter 
ritory  equal  in  area  to  the  greatest  empire  in 
the  world,  filled  with  an  energetic,  brilliant, 
brave  and  devoted  people,  educated  in  the  idea 
that  the  State  is  supreme  and  could  secede  at 
wiH  *  *  *  That  corner-stone,  on  which 
they  sought  to  raise  a  new  empire,  now  lies 
crumbled  and  shattered  under  the  feet  of  ad 
vancing  freedom." 

The  whole  South  had  been  involved  in  the 
rebellion.  The  so-called  Union  men  there 
"were  willing  to  vote  that  peace  should  con 
tinue,  and  with  it  the  Union,  but,  if  it  were  to 
be  broken,  then  they  would  not  fight  against 
their  brethren  at  home  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Union.  They  preferred  peace  at  home 
and  war  with  the  United  States,  to  war  at 
home  and  peace  with  the  United  States." 
Even  since  the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy, 
the  Southerners  might  be  divided  into  "those 
who  acquiesce  readily  and  those  who  acqui 
esce  only  under  coercion."  Andrew  Johnson 
had  declared  himself,  and  Davis  openly  op 
posed  him.  "To  that  people  our  rulers  are 
now  proposing  to  extend  the  privilege  of  gov- 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  361 

erning  themselves  and  us."  It  was  well  to 
make  haste  slowly.  Virginia's  Legislature 
had  shown  that  there  are  "precautions  abso 
lutely  necessary."  Davis  favored  the  execu 
tion  of  Jefferson  Davis,  but  felt  that  "the  mere 
hanging  of  men  has  no  power  to  prevent  such 
a  rebellion  as  this,  where  men  have  staked 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  on  the  issue  and 
died,  glorying  in  their  cause.  By  hanging 
them,  you  would  be  only  multiplying  the  num 
ber  of  martyrs,  without  materially  diminish 
ing  that  of  criminals."  But  they  should  be 
"stamped  with  the  foul  brand  of  treason,  not 
allowed  to  glory  over  their  struggle  against 
the  nation,  to  remain  the  heroes  of  the  South, 
as  they  are  at  this  day."  England  and  France 
preach  moderation  to  us,  but  they  do  not  show 
it  to  overthrown  enemies.  As  "we  are  today 
a  nation,  in  spite  of  their  advice,  their  enmity 
and  their  efforts,  silence  would  better  become 
them." 

Davis  believed  that  "the  immense  region"  of 
the  South  could  not  be  governed  by  military 
power,  for  such  government  is  "inconsistent, 
not  only  with  the  principles  of  our  institutions, 
but  with  the  permanence  and  integrity  of  the 
American  Government."  When  we  organize 
the  civil  governments  in  the  subjugated  States 
"we  must  recognize  not  only  personal  free 
dom,  but  the  principles  of  self-government— 


362       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  right  of  the  people  to  rule."  Davis  found 
no  white  population  of  the  South  "who  will 
draw  the  sword  for  us  and  will  maintain  our 
rights,  where  they  are  threatened,  and  are 
powerful  enough  to  maintain  the  authority  of 
the  State  government  at  home."  He  found 
such  men  in  the  negroes,  and  he  proposed  to 
give  them  the  franchise,  because  their  rights, 
and  even  more,  "our  safety,"  were  at  stake. 
"It  is  a  question  of  power,  not  of  right,  a  ques 
tion  of  salvation,  not  of  morals.  The  alterna 
tives  are  before  us  of  a  republican,  friendly 
government,  or  a  hostile  oligarchy  in  the 
South."  He  held  that  "when  negroes  become 
free,  they  become  a  part  of  the  nation,  and  to 
ostracise  them  is  to  sanction  a  principle  fatal 
to  American  free  government."  To  the  ob 
jection  that  the  negroes  are  not  intelligent 
enough  to  vote,  Davis  replied  that  they  know 
"a  gray  uniform  from  a  blue  one.  They  know 
a  Yankee  from  their  masters.  They  have 
fought  well  under  Yankee  leadership."  He 
told  the  Chicagoans  that:  "I  have  seen  about 
as  much  of  negroes  as  any  of  you,  have  lived  as 
near  them,  and  I  suppose  have  as  much  preju 
dice  toward  them  as  any  of  you;  but  to  talk  of 
this,  after  we  have  had  to  call  them  to  our  aid 
in  putting  down  the  rebellion,  is  either  drivel 
ing  folly  or  infinite  meanness."  In  Maryland 
emancipation  was  carried,  "by  going  to  the 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  363 

poor  white  men  in  the  Southern  portion  of  the 
State  and  showing  them  that  the  negro  could 
relieve  them  from  military  service.  They  did 
not  stop  to  discuss  his  right  to  political  privi 
leges  then.  If  he  is  their  and  your  equal  on 
the  battle  field,  in  the  service  of  the  country, 
he  is  and  should  be  at  the  ballot  box." 

Davis  refused  to  believe  that  Johnson  was 
opposed  to  negro  suffrage.  "He  may  have  de 
sired  to  give"  the  Southern  whites  "a  golden 
opportunity"  of  "silencing  every  doubt  as  to 
their  loyalty."  Like  Davis,  Johnson  knew 
that  the  "only  authority  that  can  recognize 
State  governments  at  the.  South  is  the  Con 
gress,"  and  to  that  "august  assembly"  Davis 
turned  and  appealed  to  it,  "not  to  take  any 
man's  declaration  as  to  the  safety  of  trusting 
the  whole  mass  of  the  rebels  of  the  South  with 
the  control  of  the  Southern  States,"  which  pol 
icy  might  "clog  and  even  arrest  the  wheels  of 
government."  He  was  "very  little  of  a  philan 
thropist,"  but  he  knew  that  the  negro's  vote 
was  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  Govern 
ment,  and  that  if  the  constitutions  of  the 
Southern  States  did  "not  give  the  mass  of  the 
negroes  the  right  of  voting  on  equal  terms  with 
the  loyal  white  men,"  then  "republican  prin 
ciples"  required  that  no  person  from  those 
States  should  be  admitted  to  Congress.  Con 
gress  should  pass  a  constitutional  amendment, 


364       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

securing  the  suffrage  to  the  negroes,  and  sub 
mit  it  to  the  States,  for  "we  need  the  votes  of 
all  the  colored  people.  It  is  numbers,  not  in 
telligence,  that  count  at  the  ballot  box;  it  is 
right  intention  and  not  philosophic  judgment 
that  casts  the  vote."  If  such  an  amendment 
be  passed,  "all  the  principles  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  will  be  executed;  this 
Government  will  rest  on  the  right  of  individ 
ual  liberty  and  the  right  of  every  man  to  bear 
a  share  in  the  government  of  the  country, 
whose  laws  he  obeys  and  whose  bayonet,  in  the 
hour  of  danger,  he  bears." 

Convinced  in  the  rightfulness  of  granting 
suffrage  to  the  negro,  he  wrote  the  Nation 
upon  that  subject,  and  his  letter  was  printed 
on  November  30.*  In  editorial  comment,  the 
letter  is  spoken  of  as  presenting,  "in  a  forcible 
shape,  nearly  all  that  can  be  said  in  favor  of 
negro  suffrage  at  the  South.  To  the  temper 
of  portions  of  the  letter,  we  might  offer  several 
objections,  though  none  of  them  would  affect 
the  weight  of  the  argument.  But  when  he 
calls  for  negro  suffrage,  and  in  the  same 
breath  finds  fault  with  the  President  for  not 
withdrawing  the  troops  from  the  South,  we 
feel  bound  to  say  that  his  zeal  outruns  his  dis 
cretion.  The  bestowal  of  the  franchise,  after 
the  close  of  the  war,  without  military  protec 
tion,  would,  in  our  opinion,  have  been  of  about 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  365 

as  much  use  to  the  negroes  as  rations  of  pate 
de  foie  gras."  This  is  scarcely  a  fair  com 
ment,  since  Davis's  criticism  of  the  President's 
military  policy  was  largely  made  because  he 
feared  that  the  military  occupation  of  the 
South  would  become  permanent,  and  because, 
having  so  great  power,  the  President  had  not 
used  it  for  the  permanent  safeguarding  of  the 
Republic,  by  granting  negroes  the  suffrage. 
Davis's  letter  was  called  forth  by  the  result  of 
the  election  in  Connecticut,  in  which  State  a 
decisive  majority  had  just  refused  to  permit 
the  negro  to  vote.  Davis  felt  that  this  election 
revealed  the  fact  that  "there  is  an  unreliable 
minority  in  our  ranks,  willing  to  unite  with 
the  enemies  of  the  country,"  but  that  the  im 
portance  of  the  election  was  lessened  since,  "in 
Connecticut,"  "no  practical  importance  at 
taches  to  the  negro  vote  and  the  old  prejudice 
was  free  to  assert  its  power."  Davis  was  as 
strongly  convinced  as  ever  that,  in  the  South 
ern  States,  the  "negro  population  is  a  controll 
ing  power,  on  which  the  United  States  can 
rely  there,  in  the  event  of  a  renewed  rebellion. 
It  is  the  only  body  of  people  who  can  give  the 
white  minority  of  loyal  men  a  voice  in  the  na 
tion  and  prevent  them  from  being  over 
whelmed  and  ostracised  by  the  hostile  major 
ity.  It  is  the  only  body  from  which  a  Re 
publican  vote  can  be  expected  in  any  of  those 


366       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

States;  for  the  mass  of  whites,  loyal  as  well  as 
disloyal,  hate  and  villify  us,  while  the  negroes 
know  that  liberty  is  our  gift."  Davis  was 
alarmed  because  "the  tone  of  the  Southern 
press — now  merely  muttering  between  bayo 
nets — is  that  of  execration  against  the  Repub 
licans."  With  others  who  had  voted  for 
Johnson,  Davis  "stood  confounded  and  divid 
ed"  by  his  policy.  The  only  choices  other 
than  negro  suffrage  were  "an  oligarchy  of 
loyal  whites,  or  an  aristocracy  of  hostile 
whites.  The  one  is  loyal,  but  not  republican ; 
the  other  is  neither  loyal  or  republican."  The 
former,  President  Lincoln  organized  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Louisiana;  the  latter  President 
Johnson  is  "organizing  under  his  proclama 
tion."  There  was  danger  that  results  of  the 
war  should  be  lost,  and  "in  all  the  South  the 
only  mass  of  the  population  interested  and 
able  to  prevent  this  danger  is  the  negroes." 
Johnson's  words  had  been  inconsistent.  "His 
policy  is  that  of  our  enemies,"  and  he  had  left 
the  Southern  negroes  "to  the  will  of  the  mas 
ters."  He  "has  as  much  power  to  admit  as  to 
exclude  voters,"  and,  while  his  whole  "con 
duct  was  a  usurpation,  it  was  no  more  usurpa 
tion  to  direct  his  agents  to  receive  than  to  re 
fuse  negro  votes."  He  had  not  followed  the 
ante-bellum  constitutions  in  all  respects.  "The 
suggestion  that  the  constitutions  survive  the 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  367 

governments  is  at  once  absurd  and  dangerous. 
The  governments  ceased  to  exist,  because  they 
disowned  their  subordination  to  the  United 
States  in  point  of  law.  Our  arms  expelled 
them  as  usurpations  in  point  of  fact.  The  con 
stitutions  were  constitutions  of  those  govern 
ments  and  of  nothing  else.  When  the  rebel 
lion  usurped  power  in  the  States,  the  State 
governments  ceased  to  exist,  the  constitutions 
became  dead  forms;  the  line  of  official  trans 
mission  of  powers  was  broken,  there  ceased  to 
be  any  person  designated  to  renew  the  func 
tions  of  government,  and  they  could  never  be 
renewed,  till  the  people  constituted  anew  the 
government,  or  Congress,  in  executing  its 
guarantee,  directed  such  governments  to  be 
constituted.  For  a  government  is  certain  men 
charged  with  certain  powers.  A  constitution 
of  government  is  the  law  creating  the  powers 
and  designating  the  men  to  execute  them ;  and, 
without  the  men,  the  government  and  the  con 
stitution  are  alike  nonentities." 

Davis's  consistency  was  exact  and  his  logic 
relentless,  if  you  granted  him  his  premises. 
He  admitted  that  "nothing  is  more  true  than 
that  the  question  of  suffrage  belongs  to  the 
States,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  Congress  is 
the  exclusive  judge  of  the  compatibility  of 
their  solution  of  it  with  republican  principles. 
The  States  have  the  right  to  prescribe  who 


368       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

shall  vote,  but  they  have  no  right  so  to  exer 
cise  it  as  to  create  an  oligarchy  or  an  aristoc 
racy,  instead  of  a  republican  form  of  govern 
ment;  and  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress 
to  judge  this  question;  and  its  judgment  is 
final  and  conclusive  on  all  departments  of  the 
Government.  This  judgment  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  President  to  execute;  over  it,  he  has  no 
power.  It  is  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  repub 
lican  government  in  the  States  which  gives 
Congress  this  high  jurisdiction ;  and  the  right 
of  determining  who  are  the  Representatives 
and  Senators  carries  with  it  the  exclusive  right 
of  determining  which  is  the  constitutional— 
that  is,  the  republican  government  of  a  State— 
for,  otherwise,  it  might  find  itself  compelled 
to  admit  Representatives  and  Senators  of  the 
States  whose  governments  are  not  republican 
in  form  or  substance,  in  its  opinion." 

Davis's  reasoning  was  never  more  cogent, 
nor  his  reasoning  more  acute  than  in  this  pa 
per.  He  maintained  that  "republican  prin 
ciples  and  national  interests  alike  forbid  the 
acceptance  of  the  President's  plan."  "Repub 
lican  government,  in  the  American  sense,  is 
the  government  by  the  mass  of  the  people 
through  their  representatives.  Whenever, 
therefore,  the  mass  of  the  citizens,  or  any  great 
proportion  of  them,  is  excluded  from  political 
power,  the  government  ceases  to  be  republi- 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  369 

can."  In  Connecticut  the  exclusion  of  ne 
groes  from  voting  "does  not  touch  the  republi 
canism  of  her  government,  for  the  persons  ex 
cluded  form  no  material  or  appreciable  por 
tion  of  her  citizens,"  but  in  South  Carolina 
the  negro  citizens  form  two-thirds  of  the 
whole  body."  "To  deny  them  a  vote"  is  not 
merely  to  establish  an  aristocracy  of  race,  but 
also  an  oligarchy.  "The  Constitution  makes 
no  distinction  of  color.  Its  only  distinction 
is  that  between  free  and  slave  inhabitants." 

Free  negroes  are  citizens,  and,  indeed,  voted 
in  North  Carolina  and  in  Maryland  at  the 
time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion.  The  President's  "mushroom  govern 
ments"  ought  to  be  rejected,  for  "his  intermed 
dling  is  wholly  illegal."  "What  has  been  done 
is  a  vain  form."  Military  rule  should  not  be 
prolonged;  for,  if  continued  long,  "the  idea 
of  government  by  law  will  die  out  from  the 
land."  "Discarding,  therefore,  the  horrible 
thought  of  military  government,"  Congress 
can  "paralyze  the  dangerous  vote"  by  a  consti 
tutional  amendment,  apportioning  represen 
tation  according  to  the  number  of  persons  al 
lowed  to  vote.  This  policy,  however,  would 
leave  the  "States  in  the  hands  of  the  disaffect 
ed,"  and  should  be  rejected,  as  should  that  of 
placing  them  in  the  hands  of  the  loyal  white 
minority.  A  reorganization  of  these  States  on 

24 


370       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

the  "basis  of  universal  suffrage,"  secured 
"against  the  mutations  of  political  life"  by  the 
adoption  of  a  constitutional  amendment,  is 
necessary  to  support  the  prohibition  of  slavery. 
"They  who  propose  to  postpone  negro  suf 
frage  till  the  negro  is  educated,  need  political 
education  more  than  the  negro."  Davis  would 
neither  deprive  Southern  leaders  of  citizen 
ship,  nor  confiscate  their  lands,  but  would 
"balance  the  power  of  the  disaffected  aristoc 
racy  by  the  resident  mass  of  loyal  negroes, 
armed  with  the  ballot  and  bayonet."  Johnson 
was  "experimenting  now  on  nothing  but  the 
patience  of  the  Republicans  and  the  support 
of  the  Democrats."  If  he  should  obtain  a 
majority  in  Congress,  "a  counter  revolution  is 
effected,  which  postpones  the  fruits  of  war  for 
a  generation." 

The  Republicans  then  possessed  two-thirds 
of  both  houses  of  Congress,  so  that  they  could 
do  what  they  thought  right.  "If  the  Presi 
dent  deserts  those  who  elected  him  for  the 
votes  and  policy  of  their  opponents,  we  must 
break  the  coalition  at  any  cost."  Davis  felt 
that  it  was  insane  to  dream  that  the  South 
would  of  "itself  ever  give  either  suffrage  or 
equality  before  the  law,  and  now  is  our  only 
time  to  compel  it." 

His  religious  feeling  caused  him  thus  sol 
emnly  to  close  his  last  public  utterance:  "If 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  371 

men  say  God  works  slowly,  yet  will  not  let  a 
good  cause  fail,  they  had  better  enlighten 
their  piety  by  a  glance  at  his  ways  in  history, 
and  reflect  that  he  visits  wasted  opportunities, 
not  less  than  wickedness,  with  ruin.  I  trust 
we  may  not  be  monuments  of  that  wrath." 

During  the  second  week  of  the  first  session 
of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  Davis  visited 
Washington,  and  when  he  entered  the  hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  he  received  a 
"general,  spontaneous  and  cordial"  greeting 
from  gentlemen  on  both  sides  of  the  House, 
so  that  he  was  sensibly  touched.  "The  crowd 
that  gathered  about  him  was  so  great  that  the 
party  was  obliged  to  retire  to  one  of  the  larger 
ante-rooms,  for  fear  of  interrupting  the  public 
business."  5 

Society  in  Baltimore  had  been  divided  into 
two  hostile  camps  by  the  war.  The  Union 
people  held  assemblies,  which  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Davis  attended.  The  Union  men  formed  the 
Union  Club,  which  stood  on  Charles  street, 
where  the  Masonic  Temple  now  stands,  about 
two  blocks  from  Davis's  residence.  In  a  little 
room  there  Davis  was  wont  to  meet  Joseph  M. 
Cushing,  George  C.  Maund,  Archibald  Stir 
ling,  Jr.,  Hugh  Lennox  Bond,  James  T.  Par 
tridge  and  John  T.  Graham,  and  discuss 
Maryland  politics  with  them.  All  of  the 
party  smoked,  except  Davis  and  Graham,  who 


372       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

frequently  left  the  room  before  the  rest  to 
avoid  the  smoke-laden  atmosphere.  Graham 
often  called  for  Davis,  when  such  a  conference 
was  arranged,  and  did  so  on  a  cold  day  in  the 
Christmas  season  of  1865.  Davis  came  out  of 
his  house,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  without 
an  overcoat.  Graham  remonstrated  with  him 
on  his  recklessness,  but  Davis  made  light  of 
the  matter.  Just  before  reaching  the  Club, 
however,  he  shivered  and  said  to  Graham:  "It 
is  cold."  He  stayed  a  while  at  the  conference 
and  returned  to  his  house  for  the  last  time. 

The  cold  which  he  caught  developed  into 
pneumonia  and,  after  a  very  short  illness,  on 
December  31  he  died  at  his  home  on  the  west 
side  of  St.  Paul  street,  above  Saratoga  street. 
Until  the  morning  of  the  day  preceding  his 
death,  his  recovery  was  expected,  but  then  un 
favorable  symptoms  appeared,  and  when  his 
wife  spoke  to  him  on  that  evening  of  a  brief 
visit  they  had  planned  to  Mrs.  S.  F.  Du  Pont, 
he  replied,  in  the  last  words  he  ever  uttered: 
"It  shows  the  folly  of  making  plans  even  for  a 
day."  He  continued  to  fail  rapidly  in 
strength  and  passed  away  about  two  o'clock  on 
the  next  afternoon,  so  "quietly  that  no  one 
knew  the  moment  of  his  departure."  To  this 
day  the  surpassing  beauty 8  of  his  face,  with  its 
lofty  brow,  finely  chiseled  nose  and  sweeping 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  373 

moustache,  lingers  in  the  memory  of  those 
who  saw  his  body  as  it  lay  awaiting  burial. 

He  was  cut  off  in  the  prime  of  life,  before 
men  knew  he  was  ill,  and  the  city  was  awed 
by  the  suddenness  of  his  end.  Even  the  Sun 
paper,  which  had  fought  him  bitterly  while 
alive,  now  he  was  dead,  could  do  naught  but 
praise  him,  diminishing  that  praise,  in  truth, 
as  much  as  it  could,  calling  him  a  "politician 
of  considerable  ability  and  aspirations,"  a  man 
of  "fine  forensic  talents,"  one  who  "rather 
prided  himself  on  being  a  progressive  in  poli 
tics  and  seemed  disposed  to  startle  at  times  by 
his  enunciations.  His  extreme  radicalism  in 
the  end  doubtless  worked  to  his  disadvantage 
among  his  political  associates." 

At  eleven  o'clock  on  New  Year's  Day  the 
rooms  of  the  Union  Club  were  filled  with 
Davis's  friends,  manifesting  the  depths  of  their 
feelings.  Governor  Thomas  Swann  was  made 
president  of  the  meeting,9  and  said  that,  asso 
ciated  with  Davis  "for  many  years  in  the  pub 
lic  affairs  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  no  one, 
perhaps,  had  a  better  opportunity  than  myself 
of  judging  of  his  commanding  talents,  indom 
itable  energy  and  industry,  and  his  many  pri 
vate  virtues.  An  able  debater,  the  ablest,  per 
haps,  in  the  country;  a  brilliant  orator,  firm 
and  decided  in  all  his  impulses,  spotless  in  the 
relations  of  private  life,  few  of  our  public  men 


374       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

in  the  country  have  built  up  a  greater  reputa 
tion  for  cultivated  genius,  or  attached  to  him 
more  devoted  friends  among  those  with  whom 
he  co-operated  in  his  political  career.  For 
some  years  past  it  has  been  my  misfortune  to 
differ  with  him  upon  questions  of  national  and 
State  politics,  under  circumstances  which 
might  have  been  supposed  to  have  led  to 
alienation  and  unkind  feeling.  This  I  am 
happy  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  correct.  But 
the  past  is  forgotten  in  the  severity  and  sud 
denness  of  the  blow  which  has  brought  us  here 
today.  There  are  occasions  when  the  petty 
differences  of  this  life  should  be  forgotten.  It 
is  in  the  sad  occurrence  of  events  like  the  pres 
ent  that  the  worthlessness  of  all  worldly  pur 
suits  is  so  keenly  brought  to  our  view." 

All  that  day  and  until  late  in  the  evening 
the  body  lay  in  state  at  his  residence,  and  the 
newspapers  recorded  that  "many  colored  peo 
ple  were  among  those  who  viewed  the  re 
mains"  of  him  who  had  fought  for  them  so 
valiantly.  The  funeral  services  took  place  in 
St.  Paul's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  next  day,  and  were  conducted 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Hobart,  the  rector  of  Grace 
Church.  Afterwards  Davis's  body  was  in 
terred  in  the  family  vault  of  his  father-in-law 
in  St.  Paul's  graveyard.  The  Mayor  and  City 
Council  attended  the  funeral  services  in  a 


CHAPTER  X— 186?  375 

body,  as  did  Chief  Justice  Chase,  Mr.  Justice 
Davis,  his  cousin,  Mr.  Justice  Swayne,  Gen. 
H.  W.  Halleck,  Secretary  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
Charles  Sumner,  Governor  Swann,  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  C.  C.  Cox.  The  courts  ad 
journed  for  the  day  and  a  meeting  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  bar  was  held  in  the  Superior  Court 
room.10  The  presiding  officer,  Judge  R.  N. 
Martin,  spoke  of  Davis  as  an  "accomplished, 
skillful  and  able  lawyer,  with  intellectual 
power  as  an  advocate  and  debater  that  gave 
him  a  conspicuous  place  among  the  most  bril 
liant  of  our  forensic  and  party  orators,"  and 
"as  possessing  all  those  qualifications  which 
belong  to  a  cultivated  and  irreproachable  gen 
tleman."  Resolutions  were  adopted,11  in  mov 
ing  which  William  Schley  spoke  of  Davis  as 
"deeply  grounded  in  the  elements  of  law"  and 
as  having  "great  ability  in  conducting  causes." 
"If  he  had  given  his  powerful  mind,  in  a  large 
degree,"  to  law,  he  would  have  been  among 
the  "foremost  lawyers;  but  nature  designed 
him  for  a  statesman."  In  private  life  he  was 
"a  refined  and  courteous  gentleman  of  rare 
acquirements  and  highly  cultivated  taste,  gen 
ial  and  social  in  disposition.  He  was  not  a 
man  to  abandon  his  convictions,"  but  was 
"stern  and  uncompromising  and  fearless  in 
the  discharge  of  what  he  considered  his  du 


ties." 


376       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

J.  Morrison  Harris,  who  had  served  in  Con 
gress  with  Davis  for  six  years,  seconded  the 
resolutions  concerning  that  "great  man,"  in 
whom  "regular  habits  and  physical  vigor 
would  have  led  men  to  look  for  long  life." 
His  colleague  thus  bore  testimony  to  Davis : 
"So  unquestionable  was  his  ability,  so  large  his 
information,  so  striking  his  views,  so  evident 
his  earnest  and  clear  convictions,  and  so 
irresistible  the  power  of  his  eloquence  that, 
however  men  differed  with  or  censured  him, 
he  never  rose  to  address  the  House  that  its 
members  did  not  throng  around  him  and, 
friend  and  foe  alike,  accord  to  him  frank  and 
liberal  praise.  In  all  his  relations  to  the  House 
he  occupied  high  position,  and  both  in  the 
committee  room  and  on  the  floor  he  made  him 
self  felt."  His  enemies  could  accuse  him  of 
nothing  worse  than  erroneous  opinions.  "His 
more  important  speeches  were  the  products 
of  a  full  mind,  and  its  stores  of  acquisition 
were  fused  with  a  freshness  of  handling  that 
was  always  novel  and  applied  with  an  earnest 
vigor  that  commanded  willing  audience,  even 
when  it  failed  to  enforce  conviction.  His  ar 
guments  were  close,  compact  and  true,  reason 
ing  strictly.  He  never  stopped  short  of  log 
ical  sequences,  bold  and  self-poised.  He  did 
not  pause  to  estimate  probable  censure,  or  hold 
back  from  fear  of  consequences.  He  appeared 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  377 

to  have  an  intuitive  and  unfaltering  faith  in 
his  own  convictions,  and  he  wrought  courage 
ously  for  their  realization.  His  fluency  was 
wonderful,  and  his  style  of  speaking  carried 
his  hearers  with  him  by  the  very  rush  and  im 
petus  of  the  vigorous  earnestness  that  marked 
it.  He  was  undoubtedly  an  orator  of  rare 
ability,  and  those  skillful  to  judge  assigned 
him  a  foremost  rank  among  the  eloquent 
speakers  of  the  country." 

"Early  winning  distinction,  his  cogent  mode 
of  arguing  his  causes  and  the  breadth  and  com 
prehensiveness  of  his  arguments  have  won  him 
unstinted  praise  in  all  the  courts  in  which  he 
practiced."  In  the  Supreme  Court  "he  had 
gained  the  position  of  a  counsellor  of  com 
manding  abilities."  He  possessed  the  "firm 
faith  of  a  Christian  man."  "Proud  and  self- 
contained  in  the  matters  that  pressed  upon  him 
sharply  in  the  rough  conflicts  of  public  life,  I 
know,"  said  Mr.  Harris,  "that  he  was  genial, 
vivacious  and  singularly  agreeable  in  his  pri 
vate  intercourse."  His  "extensive  reading, 
large  observation,  literary  taste,  and  wonder 
ful  memory  made  him  a  most  attractive  and 
pleasant  companion,  and,  while  his  earnest  na 
ture  attached  his  friends  most  strongly  to  him, 
they  felt  that  differences  of  opinion  did  not 
beget  in  him  any  personal  littlenesses,  and  that 


378       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

he  was  to  be  fully  and  frankly  relied  upon  in 
all  the  professions  of  his  friendships." 

The  eloquent  R.  Stockett  Matthews  fol 
lowed  and  bore  witness  to  the  fact  that  Davis's 
"whole  heart  was  aglow  with  a  love  of  liber 
ty."  The  law  had  justulost  one  of  its  ablest  and 
most  ingenious  interpreters,  in  whom  the  rar 
est  gifts  of  nature  were  united  to  ripe  scholar 
ship  and  copious  and  accurate  legal  learning. 
He  brought  to  the  discharge  of  the  trusts  com 
mitted  to  his  management  a  profound  appre 
ciation  of  the  responsibilities  of  an  advocate. 
In  small,  as  in  great  cases,  he  was  painstaking 
and  exact,  never  trusting  to  the  chances  of  the 
trial  table  interests  which  could  be  best  pro 
moted  by  faithful  study  and  preparation.  No 
question  was  so  complicated  as  to  baffle  his 
powers  of  subtle  analysis,  and  the  most  ab 
struse  principles  were  simplified  by  the  force 
of  his  clear  logic.  He  was  a  rapid,  keen  and 
exhaustive  thinker,  not  less  eminent  for  the 
quickness  of  his  perceptions  than  for  the  co 
pious  logic  with  which  he  illustrated  every 
subject  upon  which  his  mind  was  brought  to 
bear.  Although  it  was  easy  at  all  times  to 
recognize  in  his  diction  and  in  his  varied  style 
the  cultivation  of  a  scholar  of  widely  diversi 
fied  acquirements,  yet  his  arguments  in  the 
courts  were  sui  generis — exhibitions  of  process 
es  of  pure  reasoning."  They  were  "terse,  vig- 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  379 

orous,  compact  and  lucid,  and  their  unity  was 
seldom  marred  by  the  interpolation  of  decided 
cases."  For  some  years  before  his  death  he 
had  seldom  appeared  in  the  courts.  A  "most 
self-reliant  and  self-poised  man,"  when  Davis 
was  "once  satisfied  that  a  certain  course  was  to 
be  pursued,  he  walked  through  it  to  the  end 
and  never  asked  himself  how  many  or  how  few 
would  follow  him.  Dreading  alone  the  con 
demnation  of  his  own  conscience,  he  neither 
omitted  to  do  what  it  dictated,  nor  dreaded  the 
disapprobation  of  others.  He  felt  that  right 
and  truth  and  justice  ought  to  be  popular,  and 
he  was  their  champion  at  all  times  against  all 
odds,  and  fearless  of  all  consequences.  He 
could  dare  to  do  what  most  men  would  shrink 
from;  he  could  dare  to  leave  undone  a  thou 
sand  things  which  men  equally  honest,  but 
with  coarser  natures,  are  in  the  habit  of  think 
ing  necessary  to  the  success  of  a  public  man." 

Archibald  Stirling,  Jr.,  showing  signs  of 
his  great  grief  in  his  speech,12  added  that 
Davis,  "while  he  was  in  many  respects  a  proud 
man  and  a  man  of  quick  temper,"  was  "desti 
tute  of  every  species  of  personal  meanness  and 
of  every  species  of  personal  resentment.  He 
united  the  utmost  rapidity  of  thought,  the  ut 
most  facility  of  acquiring  information,  with  a 
habit  of  most  patient  investigation."  A  "cul 
tivated  Christian  gentleman,"  he  was  reserved 


380       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

in  religious  matters,  but  had  a  "firm  and  strong 
faith." 

Outside  of  Baltimore,  came  other  testimo 
nies  to  his  power.  Greeley  wrote  that  the 
House  of  Representatives  had  listened  to  him 
as  it  listens  to  few,  and  that  he  had  "keen  in 
vective,  salient  intellect,  with  power  of  con 
tinuous  thought."  By  nature  self-reliant,  he 
seldom  permitted  the  opinions  of  others,  even 
of  his  own  friends,  to  influence  his  own  resolu 
tions.  Hence  he  grew  to  be  thought  as  a  poli 
tician  self-willed,  and,  by  those  who  make  ex 
pediency  their  established  doctrine,  to  be  de 
nounced  as  impracticable.  Little  cared  he. 
His  "fidelity  to  ideas  was  one  of  his  most  ad 
mirable  traits." 

Charles  Sumner  wrote  a  lofty  eulogy 
upon  Davis,13  for  he  felt  that  Davis's 
death  "at  this  moment  is  a  national  calamity. 
His  rare  powers  were  in  their  perfect  prime 
and  he  had  dedicated  all  to  his  country.  At 
this  crisis,  when  the  best  statesmanship,  in 
spired  by  the  best  courage,  is  much  needed,  it 
is  hard  to  part  with  him.  Nature  had  done 
much  for  this  remarkable  man.  Elegant  in 
person,  elastic  in  step  and  winning  in  manner, 
he  arrested  the  attention  of  all  who  saw  him, 
and  when  he  spoke,  the  first  impressions  were 
confirmed.  He  was  rapid  and  direct.  He 
went  straight  to  the  point.  He  abounded  in 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  381 

ideas.  Language  lent  her  charms.  Among 
the  living  orators  of  the  country  he  had  few 
peers.  Professional  studies  and  political  ex 
perience  added  to  his  powers.  Had  he  lived 
I  know  not  what  height  he  might  have 
reached.  Never  before  had  he  been  so  com 
pletely  master  of  himself,  and  never  before 
did  he  see  so  clear  and  glorious  a  line  of  duty. 
As  the  occasion  was  vast,  so  I  doubt  not  would 
have  been  his  efforts.  He  looked  to  nothing 
else  than  the  complete  enfranchisement  of  his 
country  and  the  redemption  of  all  the  prom 
ises  of  our  fathers  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence."  In  his  recent  letter  to  the  Nation, 
he  had  "touched  this  question  to  the  quick," 
and  was  right  in  his  contention.  "Alas!  that 
he  is  not  here  to  help  in  the  battle  now  at  hand ! 
With  what  force  and  beauty,  with  what  inten 
sity  and  eloquence  he  would  have  illustrated 
the  congenial  theme."  Sumner  compared  him 
with  Charles  James  Fox.  Davis  was  a  "zeal 
ous  man  and,  like  all  zealous  men,  when  great 
questions  are  in  issue,  sometimes  gave  offence. 
It  is  hard  to  strike  strong  blows  without  leav 
ing  bruises.  It  is  hard  to  restrain  the  rage  of 
a  generous  indignation  so  that  it  will  not  seem 
severe.  There  are  times  when  Justice  is  se 
verity.  There  were  things  he  could  not  bear. 
His  warm  nature  glowed  at  the  thought  of 
wrong  or  usurpation;  nor  could  he  check  the 


382       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

currents  of  his  soul,  even  if  they  threatened  to 
dash  against  persons  powerful  in  place  or  in 
fluence.  A  President  like  Lincoln  was  not 
above  his  honest,  fearless  criticism." 

To  Davis's  loyalty  to  the  Union,  Sumner 
gave  ample  praise:  "His  country  owes  \nuch 
to  him.  Living  in  a  State  which  panted  with 
the  throes  of  rebellion  and  surrounded  by  a 
disloyal  population,  he  was,  from  the  begin 
ning,  austere  in  patriotism.  He  made  no  com 
promises.  He  stood  by  the  flag  at  all  hazards, 
as  the  combat  deepened;  he  was  among  the 
foremost  to  see  that  slavery  was  the  great  rebel. 
Against  slavery  he  struck.  He  had  the  inex 
pressible  satisfaction  to  witness  the  first  stages 
of  its  overthrow,  and  he  was  girding  himself 
for  the  final  battle  with  the  transcendent  of 
fender  under  the  new  form  it  assumed.  In 
striking  against  slavery,  he  set  an  example  to 
his  fellow-citizens  everywhere.  If  he,  whose 
home  was  in  a  slave  State  and  whose  friends 
were  slave-masters,  could  strike  such  blows,  it 
was  hard  to  see  how  citizens  of  other  places, 
where  slavery  did  not  prevail,  could  hesitate." 

Maryland  "will  cherish  his  memory  with 
especial  reverence.  Among  all  the  sons  she 
has  given  to  the  country  there  is  none  who  can 
be  named  before  him.  Hereafter,  when  Mary 
land  is  fully  redeemed  and  a  happy  people  re 
joices  in  all  the  manifold  blessings  secured, 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  383 

then  will  hearts  throb  and  eyes  glisten  at  the 
mention  of  this  noble  name.  Better  for  his 
memory  than  any  triumph  of  genius  at  the  bar 
will  be  his  devoted  championship  of  human 
freedom.  Maryland  may  not  now  be  ready 
to  do  fit  honor  to  her  departed  son,  but  the 
time  cannot  be  long  postponed.  Her  advance 
in  civilization  may  well  be  measured  by  sym 
pathy  with  his  name."  The  eulogy  closed  by 
quoting  "these  artless,  feeling  words,"  from  a 
"journal  published  by  colored  persons  in  Bal 
timore."  "He  was  true  to  his  country  and  a 
true  friend  to  the  colored  people,  never  fal 
tering  in  the  time  of  need.  In  Congress  he 
fought  as  a  hero  for  our  people,  and  at  home 
he  labored  assiduously  for  the  bondman  and 
espoused  the  cause  of  liberty,  justice  and  truth 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death."  His  memory 
"should  live  in  every  colored  American's  heart 
for  ages  to  come.  At  his  own  peril,  he  "stood 
invincible  for  his  country,  knew  no  flag  but 
the  flag  of  free  America,  even  when  his  nearest 
friend  would  impeach  him  for  his  acts  and  al 
most  threaten  his  life."  14 

An  estimate  less  complimentary  was  made 
by  Gideon  Welles,  who  wrote  in  his  diary,  in 
his  usual  bitter  manner,  on  January  i,  1866, 
that  Davis:  "a  conspicuous  member  of  the  last 
Congress  and  a  Maryland  politician  of  noto 
riety,  died  on  Saturday.  He  was  eloquent,  pos- 


384       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

sessed  genius,  had  acquirements,  was  eccentric, 
ambitious,  unreliable,  and  greatly  given  to  in 
trigue.  In  politics  he  was  a  centralist,  regard 
less  of  constitutional  limitations.  I  do  not  con 
sider  his  death  a  great  public  loss.  He  was 
restless  and  active,  but  not  useful.  Still,  there 
will  be  a  class  of  extreme  radicals  who  will  de 
plore  his  death  as  a  calamity  and  eulogize  his 
memory." 

From  Washington,  on  January  3,  1866, 
Chief  Justice  Chase  wrote  thus  to  Mrs.  Davis : 

"I  would  not  intrude  yesterday  on  your 
sacred  grief,  even  by  word  of  sympathy,  but 
cannot  forbear  expressing  in  a  few  lines  my 
profound  sense  of  the  great  loss  sustained  by 
Maryland  and  the  whole  country  through  the 
terrible  bereavement  which  has  been  permit 
ted  to  fall  on  you. 

"I  always  wanted  to  know  a  great  deal  more 
of  Mr.  Davis,  personally,  than  I  did;  but  I 
knew  enough  to  make  my  admiration  of  his 
remarkable  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  equal 
to  that  felt  by  those  whose  relations  were  more 
intimate.  His  brilliant  eloquence,  his  rare 
attainments,  his  noble  manners  and,  above  all, 
his  clear  perception  of  the  right  and  the  fear 
less  courage  with  which  he  devoted  himself  to 
its  vindication  and  establishment,  drew  to  him 
irresistibly  something  besides  and  far  better 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  385 

than  the  applause  of  men,  their  profound  re 
spect  and  their  affectionate  devotion. 

"His  greatest  work  is  his  noblest  monument. 
To  him  especially  belongs  the  great  honor  of 
breaking  the  bonds  of  every  slave  in  his  native 
State.  The  Free  Commonwealth  of  Mary 
land,  better  than  any  star-pointing  pyramid, 
will  commemorate  his  genius  and  his  labors. 

"You  cannot  think  much  of  these  things  now, 
and  yet  his  public  acts  and  the  greatest  public 
act  of  his  life  must  be  to  you  hereafter  a  grate 
ful  retrospect.  At  this  moment  the  anguish 
of  separation,  the  great  loss  to  yourself  and  to 
your  dear  children,  the  void  in  your  home, 
must  engross  all  your  thoughts  and  feelings. 
If  you  think  of  other  things  at  all,  you  are  in 
consolable  under  the  thought  which  oppresses 
me  and  multitudes,  how  can  he  be  spared  when 
there  is  so  much  to  be  done  which  no  other 
man  can  do  so  bravely  and  so  well?  God's 
grace  and  the  gentle  healings  of  time  can  only 
bring  relief.  May  God's  grace  be  with  you, 
dear  Madam,  and  may  you  at  last  see  even  in 
this  sorest  of  afflictions  the  manifestation  of  a 
Father's  love. 

"With  deep  sympathy  and  sincere  respect, 
"Your  friend, 

"S.  P.  CHASE." 

Congress  did  Davis  an  unexampled  and  as 
yet  unparalleled  honor.  On  Washington's 


386       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

Birthday  both  Houses  adjourned  to  hear  a 
memorial  oration  16  delivered  by  John  A.  Cres- 
well,  a  Senator  from  Maryland,  on  Davis, 
though  he  died  a  private  citizen.17  Reverdy 
Johnson,  the  State's  other  Senator,  sat  on 
Creswell's  right,  and  the  galleries  were  filled 
with  attentive  listeners.18 

In  introducing  Creswell,  the  Speaker, 
Schuyler  Colfax,  referred  to  Davis  as  one  who 
was  "inflexibly  hostile  to  oppression,  whether 
of  slaves  on  American  soil,  or  of  republicans 
struggling  in  Mexico  against  monarchical  in 
vasion,  faithful  always  to  principle  and  lib 
erty,  championing  always  the  cause  of  the 
downtrodden,  fearless  as  he  was  eloquent  in 
his  avowals.  He  was  mourned  throughout  a 
continent;  and  from  the  Patapsco  to  the  Gulf 
the  blessings  of  those  who  had  been  ready  to 
perish  followed  him  to  his  tomb."  19  Creswell 
began  by  referring  in  terms  of  high  praise  to 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  and  then  sketched 
Davis's  career.  In  his  estimate  of  his  friend 
he  first  dwelt  upon  his  oratory,  remarking  that 
"he  always  held  his  hearers  in  rapt  attention 
until  he  closed,  and  then  they  lingered  about, 
to  discuss  with  one  another  what  they  had 
heard.  I  have  seen  a  promiscuous  assembly, 
made  up  of  friends  and  opponents,  remain  ex 
posed  to  a  beating  rain  for  two  hours,  rather 
than  forego  hearing  him.  His  stump  efforts 


CHAPTER  X—  1 86?  387 

never  fell  below  his  high  standard.  He  never 
condescended  to  a  mere  attempt  to  amuse.  He 
always  spoke  to  instruct,  to  convince,  and  to 
persuade  through  the  higher  and  better  ave 
nues  to  favor."  ^  He  never  wrote  out  his 
speeches,  yet  "his  style  was  perspicuous,  ener 
getic,  concise  and,  withal,  highly  elegant.  He 
never  loaded  his  sentences  with  meretricious 
finery  or  high-sounding  supernumerary  words. 
Of  humor,  he  had  none;  but  his  wit  and  sar 
casm  at  times  would  glitter  like  the  brandished 
scimiter  of  Saladin,  and,  descending,  would 
cut  as  keenly.  The  pathetic  he  never  attempt 
ed;  but,  when  angered  by  a  malicious  assault, 
his  invective  was  consuming  and  his  epithets 
would  wound  like  pellets  of  lead." 

Turning  to  consider  the  character  of  the 
man,  Creswell  found  his  "most  striking  char 
acteristics"  to  be  "his  devotion  to  principle 
and  his  indomitable  courage.  There  never 
was  a  moment  when  he  could  be  truthfully 
charged  with  trimming  or  insincerity."  His 
views  were  always  clearly  avowed  and  fear 
lessly  maintained.21  "Some  have  said  he  was 
hard  and  dictatorial.  They  had  seen  him 
only  when  a  high  resolve  fired  his  breast  and 
when  the  gleam  of  battle  had  lighted  his  coun 
tenance.  His  friends  saw  deeper  and  knew 
that  beneath  the  exterior  he  assumed  in  his 
struggles  with  the  world  there  beat  a  heart  as 


388       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

pure  and  unsullied,  as  confiding  and  as  gentle 
as  ever  sanctified  the  domestic  circle  or  made 
loved  ones  happy."  ffl 

Several  of  those  who  knew  Davis,  in  the 
years  following  his  death  paid  noteworthy 
tributes  to  him.  John  W.  Forney  ffl  wrote  that 
Davis  "passed  away  in  the  flush  and  prime  of 
his  usefulness:  the  Rupert  of  debate,  the  Ri- 
enzi  of  the  people,  the  model  of  manly  beauty 
— yet  he  faded  out  at  the  moment  when  he 
was  filling  the  hearts  and  eyes  of  men." 

James  G.  Elaine  had  long  admired  Davis, 
and  when  Theodore  Tilton,  in  the  Independ 
ent,  said  that  Davis's  mantle  had  fallen  on 
Roscoe  Conkling,  Elaine  made  use  of  this 
comparison  in  his  attack  upon  Conkling  on 
the  floor  of  Congress,  on  April  30,  i866:24 
"The  resemblance  is  great.  It  is  striking. 
Hyperion  to  a  satyr.  Thersites  to  Hercules, 
mud  to  marble,  a  dunghill  to  a  diamond,  a 
singed  cat  to  a  Bengal  tiger,  a  whining  puppy 
to  a  roaring  lion.  Shade  of  the  mighty  Davis ! 
forgive  the  almost  profanation  of  that  jocose 
satire."  Conkling,  quite  naturally,  never  for 
gave  Elaine,  whose  admiration  for  Davis  was 
further  expressed  three  years  later,25  witness 
ing  to  "the  infinitely  varying  and  always  fresh 
ly  developing  grandeur  of  Davis's  character. 
I  was  only  yesterday  glancing  over  his 


CHAPTER  X— 186^  389 

speeches  and  I  came  across  this,  which  I  well 
remember  when  it  fell  from  his  lips." 

"For  untimely  agitators  and  premature  re 
formers,  I  have  little  sympathy.  They  are 
cocks  that  crow  at  midnight,  heralding  no 
dawn  and  only  disturbing  peaceful  and  needed 
rest  by  unseemly  and  unseasonable  clamor." 

"I  do  not  quote  this,"  Blaine  continued,  "as 
any  striking  exhibition  of  eloquence,  or  ex 
cellence  of  speech,  but  only  of  the  wonderful 
readiness  and  facility  of  expression  and  illus 
tration  which  came  to  his  lips  as  with  inspired 
force.  I  remember  the  startling  significance 
of  this  particular  phrase,  as  it  fell  on  my  ear. 
It  arrested  the  attention  of  the  entire  House." 

"Davis  was  essentially  a  many-sided  man. 
His  culture  seemed  to  embrace  the  whole  do 
main  of  knowledge.  He  was  a  profoundly 
learned  lawyer.  He  was  a  most  clear-headed 
and  admirable  statesman.  He  was  a  man  of 
letters.  He  was  a  matchless  orator.  He  was 
a  true  and  genial  Christian,  and  yet  a  man  of 
the  world." 

Fifteen  years  afterwards,  while  writing  his 
Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  Blaine  had  lost 
none  of  his  long-felt  admiration  for  Davis, 
and  wrote  of  him:26  "As  a  debater  in  the 
House,  Mr.  Davis  may  be  cited  as  an  ex 
emplar.  He  had  no  boastful  reliance  upon 
intuition  or  inspiration,  or  the  spur  of  the 


390       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

moment,  though  no  man  excelled  him  in  ex 
tempore  speech.  He  made  elaborate  prepa 
ration  by  the  study  of  all  public  questions,  and 
spoke  from  a  full  mind,  with  complete  com 
mand  of  premise  and  conclusion.  In  all  that 
pertained  to  the  graces  of  oratory,  he  was  un 
rivalled.  He  died  at  48.  Had  he  been 
blessed  with  length  of  days,  the  friends  who 
best  knew  his  ability  and  his  ambition  believed 
that  he  would  have  left  the  most  brilliant 
name  in  the  parliamentary  annals  of  Ameri 
ca."  In  another  part  of  the  work  Elaine  spoke 
of  Davis's  highly  cultivated  "mind"  and  of  his 
"style  of  writing,  which,  in  political  contro 
versy,  has  rarely  been  surpassed,  a  style  at 
once  severe,  effective  and  popular."  2T 

John  Sherman  wrote  his  Recollections  thir 
ty  years  after  Davis's  death,  and  thus  spoke  of 
him28  as  "the  most  accomplished  orator  in  the 
House  while  he  was  a  member.  Well  edu 
cated  in  college,  well  trained  as  a  lawyer,  an 
accomplished  writer  and  eloquent  speaker,  yet 
he  was  a  poor  parliamentarian,  a  careless 
member  of  committee,  and  utterly  unfit  to 
conduct  an  appropriation  or  tariff  bill  in  the 
House.  He  was  impatient  of  details,  queru 
lous  when  questioned  or  interrupted,  but  in 
social  life  and  in  intercourse  with  his  fellow- 
members,  he  was  genial,  kind  and  courteous. 
On  one  occasion,  when  I  was  called  home,  I 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  391 

requested  him  to  take  charge  of  an  appropria 
tion  bill  and  secure  its  passage.  He  did  as  I 
requested,  but  he  was  soon  embarrassed  by 
questions  he  could  not  answer,  and  had  the  bill 
postponed  until  my  return.  I  felt  for  Mr. 
Davis  a  personal  attachment,  and  I  believe 
this  kindly  feeling  was  reciprocated." 

One  of  Davis's  political  antagonists  in  Con 
gress,  S.  S.  Cox,29  wrote,  years  after  Davis's 
death,  that  he  "was  the  most  gifted  in  elo 
quence  and  logic  of  any  member  of  Congress 
within  the  author's  acquaintance."  Cox  re 
called  "a  certain  boyishness  in  his  manner  and 
figure,"  which  "wore  of!  the  moment  he  began 
to  speak."  In  Cox's  estimation,  Davis  was 
"the  best  orator  in  every  sense  of  the  word, 
whom  he  has  ever  heard  in  Congress.  He 
had  logic,  but  it  was  logic  set  on  fire  with  rhet 
oric.  As  the  war  was  winding  up  and  liberty 
became  almost  as  indispensable  to  our  country 
and  its  institutions  as  the  Federal  Union  itself, 
it  was  Henry  Winter  Davis  who  rose  to  the 
front  rank  of  debate  and  by  his  silvery  style 
and  cogent  logic  held  Congress  almost  en 
thralled  until  something  was  accorded  to  the 
dignity  of  personal  and  public  liberty  which 
had  been  invaded  by  the  excesses  of  the  war." 
Cox  continued  to  speak  of  Davis's  "austerely 
energetic,  yet  elegant  style.  It  is  said  that  he 
had  no  humor,  but  humor  is  nearly  allied  to 


392       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

wit  and  sarcasm.  It  is  confessed  that  he  had 
much  of  the  latter,  but  it  was  frequently  blend 
ed,  as  the  writer  has  seen,  with  good  temper. 
In  some  of  his  speeches,  especially  those  in  the 
midst  of  the  war,  he  made  others  sympathetic 
with  his  own  heroic  resolve."  When  he  failed 
to  produce  the  desired  effect,  the  failure  was, 
"perhaps,  due  to  a  lack  of  moderation  in  tem 
per  and  to  an  enthusiasm  which  had  been  gen 
erated  in  contending  so  closely  in  a  border 
State  with  those  who  opposed  him." 

An  unfriendly  critic  is  forced  to  bear  testi 
mony  to  Davis's  "zeal  for  civil  liberty,"  which 
"will  constitute  his  best  claim  to  the  gratitude 
of  posterity,"  and  to  his  possession  of  "literary 
gifts  scarcely  surpassed  by  any  statesman  then 
in  public  life."  * 

Julian 31  characterizes  Davis  as  "the  most 
formidable  debater  in  the  House.  He  was 
full  of  resources,  while  the  rapidity  of  his  ut 
terance  and  the  impetuosity  of  his  speech  bore 
down  everything  before  it.  The  fire  and  force 
of  his  personality  seemed  to  make  him  irresist 
ible,  and  can  only  be  likened  to  the  power  dis 
played  by  Mr.  Elaine  in  the  House  in  his  later 
and  palmier  years." 

These  are  the  estimates  of  others,  and,  at  the 
end,  it  falls  to  every  biographer  to  sum  up  the 
character  of  the  man  whose  life  he  has  writ 
ten,  whom  he  has  learned  to  know  well,  whom 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  393 

he  has  tried  to  understand.  As  a  boy,  I  was 
taught  that  Henry  Winter  Davis  was  a  great 
man  and  an  eloquent  orator,  and,  as  I  have 
studied  his  life,  my  appreciation  has  grown  of 
the  fine  gifts  with  which  he  was  endowed  and 
with  his  noble  use  of  them.  The  impression 
has  been  made  on  some  men  that  his  was  a 
complex  nature,  but  it  does  not  seem  so  to  me. 
There  is  a  remarkable  sincerity  and  simplicity 
throughout  his  whole  career.  He  was  a  fine 
scholar,  a  man  of  pure  private  life,  of  a  strong 
religious  faith,  of  a  dauntless  courage,  of  a 
lofty  eloquence,  of  a  changeless  love  for  his 
country.  He  was  a  leader  of  men  who  gave 
and  took  blows  in  conflict,  and,  though  he 
might  be  bitter  in  speech  towards  an  antago 
nist,  he  never  permitted  personal  ends  to  inter 
fere  with  public  duty.  Alexander  Hamilton 
in  1800  and  Daniel  Webster  in  1848  and  1852, 
when  displeasing  Presidential  nominations 
had  been  made  by  their  party,  compare  unfa 
vorably  as  to  their  conduct  with  Davis  in  the 
Autumn  of  1864,  when  he  made  his  fine  ad 
dress  in  Philadelphia  in  behalf  of  Lincoln's 
election.  Davis  has  been  called  an  aristocrat, 
but  in  his  heart  the  love  of  mankind  burned 
with  an  inextinguishable  blaze.  His  devotion 
to  American  principles  never  faltered,  and  he 
was  keenly  vigilant  to  guard  against  any  dan 
ger  which  might  threaten  the  Republic.  In 


394       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

his  younger  years  that  danger  seemed  to  him 
imminent  from  Russia,  and  he  boldly  warned 
his  fellow-countrymen  against  it.  Thatlovefor 
his  country,  for  the  principles  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  for  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  led  him  to  strive  to  obtain 
freedom  and  civil  rights  for  the  negro  slave 
and  to  resist  any  setting  aside  of  the  frame  of 
national  government,  no  matter  how  great  the 
need  for  this  might  seem. 

Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan  has  recently 
written:32  "The  American  people,  during 
every  great  crisis  in  their  history,  have  shown 
themselves  willing  to  be  strongly,  and  even 
autocratically,  handled  by  rulers  whom  they 
themselves  have  voluntarily  placed  in  power." 

However  true  this  might  be  of  Americans 
in  general,  it  was  far  from  true  of  Davis,  who 
ever  guarded  with  extreme  jealousy  the  ob 
servance  of  constitutional  provisions.  He  was 
anxious  that  the  Executive  should  not  en 
croach  one  inch  upon  the  sphere  of  the  Legis 
lature,  and  denounced  such  encroachment 
whenever  he  found  it. 

Detraction  has  found  little  to  say  against 
Davis,  except  that  he  made  bitter  attacks  upon 
the  political  conduct  of  his  adversaries,  and 
that  he  was  a  leader  of  men  whose  conduct  at 
elections  was  rough  and  turbulent.  As  to  the 
former  charge,  who  was  not  bitter  in  those 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  395 

strenuous  times  but  Lincoln  and  Reverdy 
Johnson?  Davis's  bitterness,  like  that  of  the 
Psalmist  of  old,  came  from  the  fact  that 
he  believed  his  adversaries  to  be  the  opponents 
of  a  righteous  cause.  As  to  the  latter  charge, 
his  friends  admitted  that  Davis  was  sometimes 
mistaken  in  his  lieutenants  and  reposed  too 
much  confidence  in  unworthy  men.  There  is 
little  doubt  also  that  in  those  old,  bad  political 
times  in  Baltimore  the  temptation  to  fight  the 
devil  with  fire  was  great,  and  that  a  man  who 
was  scrupulously  upright  in  his  own  conduct 
might  shut  his  eyes  and  permit  henchmen  to 
perform  lawless  deeds  with  less  blame  than 
would  be  given  in  later,  better  days. 

When  one  admits  all  that  the  advocatus  dia- 
boll  can  adduce,  there  are  found  no  more  than 
a  few  spots  on  the  sun,  and  the  glorious  lustre 
of  Davis's  brilliant  character  is  only  slightly 
dimmed.  He  loved  America  so  well  that  he 
would  not  willingly  suffer  those  to  come  to  its 
shores  and  share  in  the  rule  of  the  land  who 
seemed  to  him  to  be  unworthy  to  be  called 
Americans.  He  loved  his  State  so  well  that 
he  was  not  willing  that  a  single  man  within  its 
borders  should  remain  a  slave.  He  loved  the 
United  States  so  well  that  he  put  forth  his 
whole  effort  that  the  land  should  remain 
united  and  the  spirit  of  secession  and  division 
should  be  put  to  flight  forever.  For  this  faith- 


396       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

ful  service  and  this  whole-souled  devotion  to 
his  country,  this  fiery  soul  deserved  well  of  it. 
Maryland  has  borne  many  famous  sons,  but 
none  loved  her  more  unselfishly,  more  com 
pletely  than  he.  For  this  love  and  for  his  great 
service  to  the  Union,  men  may  well  preserve 
the  memory  of  the  name  of  Henry  Winter 
Davis. 

NOTES   ON    CHAPTER   X. 

1.  Speeches  and  Addresses,   556.     Capt.  H.  P.   Goddard,  in 
the  Baltimore  Sunday  Herald  of  March  8,  1903,  quoting  Rev.  C. 
Herbert  Richardson,  says  that  Davis  remarked  about  this  time 
that  the  military  commission   appointed  to  try  the   assassins  of 
Lincoln,  was  without  legal  warrant,  and  that  President  Johnson 
might  as  well  have  called  out  the  marines  and  shot  down  the 
prisoners. 

2.  Vol.  2,  p.  235. 

3.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  565. 

4.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  585.     On  July  26    (Rhodes,  vol. 
5>  P-  534)   a  letter  was  written  by  Davis  to  Sumner   (vide  Sum- 
ner's  Manuscripts  in  the  Harvard  University  Library),   asking 
whether   Massachusetts   would   tolerate    Dawes,   who    sustained 
the  President  and  whose  speech  Davis  found  "very  discourag 
ing." 

5.  Creswell,  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXI. 

6.  Appleton's   Annual    Cyclopedia    for    1865    states    that   he 
died  of  typhoid-pneumonia,   resulting  from  a  cold  bath,   taken 
while  suffering  with  a  heavy  cold. 

7.  Creswell,  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXI. 

8.  Creswell,   Speeches   and   Addresses,  XIV,   speaks   of   "his 
lifeless  body,  as  beautiful  as  the  dead  Absalom." 

9.  Joseph  M.  Gushing  acted  as  Secretary.     Resolutions  of  re 
gret  were   adopted,  which  were   proposed   by   a   committee,   of 
which  Hon.  William  J.  Albert  was  chairman. 

10.  In    the    United    States    Court   memorial    addresses   were 
also  made  by  Judge  W.  F.  Giles  and  W.  J.  Jones,  and,  in  the 
Criminal  Court,  by  Judge  H.  L.  Bond  and  George  C.  Maund. 


CHAPTER  X— 1865  397 

11.  Reverdy  Johnson,  Jr.,  acted  as  secretary  of  the  meeting. 

12.  C.  J.  M.  Gwinn  also  spoke. 

13.  In  New  York  Independent  of  January  n,  1866,  reprinted 
in  Works,  X,  104-108. 

14.  Sumner's  biographer,  Pierce   (vol.  IV,  p.  293),  refers  to 
this  warm  tribute  by  Sumner  to  Davis. 

15.  2  Diary,  409.     On  the  other  hand,  Riddle's  Wade  speaks 
of  him  (p.  259)   as  "one  of  the  ablest  and  most  brilliant  men  of 
his  time." 

16.  See  Speeches  and  Addresses,  9. 

17.  Andrew  Johnson  and  half  of  the  Senators  were  absent. 

18.  The  atrabilious  Welles  wrote  in  his  Diary  for  the  Day, 
vol.  2,  p.  438,  injuring  his  own  memory  more  than  Davis's  by 
stating  that  he  felt  that  the  celebration  had  an  ulterior  purpose. 
Davis  was  a  "private  citizen  who  died  in  Baltimore,   two   or 
three  months  since,  but  who  had  been  a  conspicuous  actor  among 
the   radicals.     He   possessed   genius,    a   graceful   elocution,    and 
erratic  ability  of  a  certain  kind ;  but  was  an  uneasy  spirit,  an 
unsafe  and  undesirable  man,  without  useful  talents  for  his  coun 
try  or  mankind.     Having  figured  as  a  leader,  with  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  Wade  and  others  in  their  intrigues,  extraordinary  hon 
ors  are  now  paid  him.     A  programme,  copied  almost  literally 
from  that  of  the  twelfth  in  memory  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  is  sent  out. 
Orders  to  commemorate  this  distinguished  Plug  Ugly  and  Dead 
Rabbit  are  issued,  and  the  whole  is  a  burlesque  which  partakes 
of  the  ridiculous  more  than  the  solemn,  intended  to  belittle  the 
memory  of  Lincoln  and  his  policy,  as  much  as  to  exalt  Davis, 
who  opposed  it.     I  would  not  go.     The  radicals  wished  Davis 
to  be  considered  the  equal  or  superior  of  Lincoln."     The  small- 
minded  man  could  neither  forget  that  Davis  had  opposed  him, 
nor  could  he  refuse  a  grudging  eulogy. 

19.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XII. 

20.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXLX. 

21.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXXI. 

22.  Speeches  and  Addresses,  XXXIII.     Appleton's  Annual 
Cyclopedia  for  1865  (p.  305)  thus  spoke  of  Davis:  "His  intellect 
was  admirably  suited  to  his  profession — keen,  inventive,  salient, 
and  with  that  power  of  continuous  thought  which  is  essential  to 
every  man  that  has  to  do  with  affairs  of  the  forum  or  of  the 
State.     As  a  politician,  his  unflinching  integrity  often  assumed 
the  appearance  of  audacity,  and,  by  nature  self-reliant,  he  sel- 


398       HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS 

dom  permitted  the  opinions  of  friends  to  influence  his  own  reso 
lutions;  hence,  by  those  who  made  expediency  their  cardinal 
doctrine,  he  was  sometimes  denounced  as  self-willed  and  im 
practicable.  His  Southern  birth  and  education,  his  political 
hopes,  which  were  always  high,  and  his  professional  interests, 
to  which  he  was  much  attached,  weighed  as  nothing  against  his 
faith  in  the  principles  of  the  Declaration,  of  humanity,  of  free 
dom,  and  of  equal  rights." 

23.  I,  Anecdotes  of  Public  Men,  302. 

24.  Vide  Moore's  American   Congress,  460. 

25.  Gail  Hamilton's  Elaine,  239. 

26.  Vol.  i,  p.  499. 

27.  Vol.  2,  p.  43. 

28.  Vol.  i,  p.  194. 

29.  Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  p.  92. 

30.  McCarthy,  p.  283. 

31.  George  W.  Julian's  Political  Recollections,  p.  360. 

32.  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  George  III,  and  C.  J.  Fox,  vol.  2,  p. 
301. 


INDEX 


Abolitionists,  100,  231,  269,  315. 

Abolitionists  and  rebellion,  168,  192,  193. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,   159. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  184,  186. 

Admission  of  States  into  the  Union,  121  to  127,  129,  130. 

Admiralty,  Board  of,  325  to  330,  342,  347. 

Aiken,  William,  84,  85,  no. 

Alabama,  The,  230,  231,  348. 

Alexandria,  Va.,  n,  15,  343.  Davis  practices  law  there,  64,  65. 

Albemarle,  The,  348. 

Albert,  William  J.,  396. 

Allegany  County,  Union,  199. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  21. 

Allen,  Capt.  J.,  43. 

American  Party,  see  Know  Nothings. 

American  Party,  Davis's  pamphlets  on,  in   1854,  80. 

Anderson,  Major  Robert,  188. 

Annapolis,  7,  10,  n,  233;  State  House,  146. 

Anne  Arundel  County,  u,  67. 

Appointments  to  Military  and  Naval  Academies,  347. 

Appropriation  bills  in  1856,  99. 

Arkansas  admitted  as  State,  126;  Congressmen  in  1863,  238 
to  241. 

Arkansas,  Reconstruction  of,  242,  243,  268,  287,  290,  339. 

Arbitrary  arrests,  339. 

Army  appropriations,  191. 

Army,  management  of  criticised  by  Davis  in  1858,135,136,142. 

Army,  management  of  criticised  by  Davis  in  1860,  161. 

Army  post,  opposed  when  without  departmental  recommenda 
tion,  159. 

Army  officers,  341;  too  old  in  1858,  135;  need  of  organization 
in  1861,  202. 

Army  of  the  Potomac,  220. 

Army,  Confederate,  in  Virginia,  must  be  destroyed,  221. 

Aristocratic  character  of  Davis,  66. 

Astor  House,  232. 

Ashley,  James  M.,  330. 

Attainder,  Bill  of,  211,  244. 

B 

Bache,  Benjamin  F.,  34,  45. 

Baltimore  visited  by  Davis  as  a  boy,  12;  Virginian's  opinion 
of,  42. 

Baltimore,  Davis's  removal  to,  65. 


400  INDEX. 

Baltimore,  Know  Nothings  in  1854,  80. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1854,  83;  naturalization  in,  95. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1852,  96;  lawlessness  of  elections,  96. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1856,  101. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1857,  112,  113. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1858,  132. 

Baltimore,  Election  of  1859,  J43- 

Baltimore,  Government  buildings  in,  in,  158. 

Baltimore  police  taken  from  city  authorities,  147,  190. 

Baltimore  Street  Car  Company  Charter,  147. 

Baltimore's  position,  if  Maryland  united  with  South,  174,  175. 

Baltimore,  Railroads  in,  191. 

Baltimore  occupied  by  General  Butler,  199. 

Baltimore  sentiment  in  April,  1861,  195,  199,  213;  in  autumn, 
1861,  197. 

Baltimore,  Election  of,  1861,  196. 

Baltimore,  Habeas  corpus  suspended  in,  215. 

Baltimore,  Davis  speaks  at,  in  1863,  217,  299. 

Baltimore,  Davis  speaks  at,  in  1864,  299. 

Baltimore,  Negroes,  in,  273. 

Baltimore,  Elections  in  defended,  283,  285,  286,  343,  344. 

Baltimore  Republican  National  Convention  of  1864,  304. 

Baltimore  fortifications,  341. 

Baltimore  Society  during  the  war,  371. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  12,  41,  158,  191. 

Banks,  N.  P.,  84,  no,  221,  286,  311,  312. 

Bates,  Edward,  137,  168. 

Barney,  Joshua,  221. 

Badger,  Col.  James,  234. 

Bell,  John,  supported  by  Davis  for  Presidency,  160,  162,  165, 
169  to  171,  191,  192,  200. 

Bible  in  schools,  134. 

Blaetterman,  Prof.  George,  46,  63. 

^  Blaine,  James  G.,  85,  256,  295,  296,  318,  347,  388,  389;  admira 
tion  of  for  Davis,  157,  188. 

Blair,  Frank  P.,  193,  342. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  189,  192,  193,  234,  267,  269,  315,  346,  347. 

Bladensburg,  52,  221. 

Blockade,  207. 

Bond,  Hon.  Hugh,  L.,  192,  236,  274,  288,  371,  396. 

Boutwell,  George  S.,  318. 

Bowie,  Thomas  F.,  116. 

Breckenridge,  John  C.,  163  to  165,  170,  171. 

Brevet  officers,  135. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  203. 

Bradford,  Gov.  A.  W.,  228,  300. 

Brooks,  Henry  P.,  115,  116,  141. 

Brooks,  Isaac,  79. 

Brooks,  James,  266. 

Brooks,  Preston,  85. 

Brown,  Judge  Geo.  Wm.,  79. 

Brown,  John,   153,   155,  163,   168,  188. 

Bounties,  263. 


INDEX.  401 

Bonnycastle,  Prof.  Charles,  47,  63. 
Brune,  F.  W.,  79. 
Buckingham,  C.  P.,  34,  45. 

Buchanan,  James,  88,  90,  103,  127,   172,  309;   his  administra 
tion,  122,  128,  160,  180,  181,  189,  203,  388. 
Bull  Run,  Battle  of,  201,  314. 
Butler,  B.  F.,  199,  347. 
Burial  of  Davis,  374. 


Calhoun,  John  C.,  127,  132,  142. 

Canada,  Reciprocity  treaty,  261,  262. 

Candidates  for  office,  163. 

Carlisle,  Pa.,  8. 

Cambridge,  Md.,  299. 

Cecil  County,  Union,  199. 

Chandler,  Zachariah,  255,  347. 

Character  of  Davis,  375,  379,  381,  387,  388,  390,  393. 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  Attack  on,  281,  327. 

Charlestown,  W.  Va.,  41. 

Charlottesville,  57,  61. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  287,  304,  375,  384,  385. 

Chase,  Bishop  Philander,  19,  37,  45. 

Central  America,  258. 

Chicago,  307,  354. 

China,  10,  17. 

Clay,  Clement  C.,  51,  63. 

Clay,  Henry,  25,  38,  50,  129,  140,  151,  166,  167. 

Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  141. 

Clayton,  John  M.,  67. 

Cleveland,  Chauncey  F.,  of  Connecticut,  159. 

Civil  Appropriation  bill,  192. 

Civil  War,  cost  of,  355. 

Civil  War,  to  be  prosecuted  to  finish,  214  to  216,  218  to  221, 
230,  231,  252,  263,  266,  279,  306  to  309,  314,  316,  331,  357. 

Civil  War,  unique,  232. 

Coast  Survey,  Davis  defends,  136. 

Cobb,  Howell,   no. 

Coercion  of  citizens,  not  States,  120. 

Coffin,  Charles  Carleton,  217. 

Coke  upon  Littleton,  54,  55. 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  294,  333,  347,  386. 

Colonization  of  negroes  impossible,  216,  222,  229,  269,  270  to 
272. 

Commutation  money,  262,  263,  265. 

Compensation  for  slaves,  269  to  271,  301,  303. 

Compromise,  Political,  doubtful  of  success  in  1852,  73,  74;  in 
1857,  106. 

Compromise  of  1850,  91,  93,  166,  213. 

Confederate  Army  must  be  defeated,  202. 

Confedrate  States,  Recognition  of,  276,  278. 

Confiscation  of  rebels'  property,  207,  211  to  213,  216,  243  to 
245.  3H,  339- 


402  INDEX. 

Congress,  Candidacy  of  Davis  for,  in  1861,  194  to  196. 
Congress,  Election  of  Davis  to,  in  1856,  82. 
Congress,  Election  of  Davis  to,  in  1858,  114  to  116,  144,  285. 
Congress,  Election  of  Davis  to,  in  1862,  217,  235,  236. 
Congress,  Compromise  measures  of,  1861,  172,  177,  183  to  185. 
Congress,  Memorial  to  Davis,  385. 
Congress,  Power  of,  in  war,  207. 
Congress,  Power  of,  to  admit  States,  124,  125,  127 
Congress  punishes  words,  275  to  277. 
Congress,  Struggle  with  President  Johnson,  370. 
Congress,  Relation  to  foreign  policy,  258-261,  317-319,  346. 
Conkling,  Roscoe,  388. 
Connecticut,  Negro  suffrage,  in,  365,  369. 
Connell,  Wilmer,  16,  19,  28. 
Conscription,  263,  264  to  266,  341. 

Constitution  of  United  States,  Authority  of,  125,  154,  178,  182, 
183,  210,  223. 

Convention  of  P.  E.  Diocese  of  Virginia,  57,  58. 

Cooper  Union,  231. 

Corruption  of  Congressmen  in  1857,  108. 

Constitutional  Union  Ticket  in  1860,  165. 

Consular  and  Diplomatic  Bill  of  1858,  119. 

Corwin,  Thomas,  156,  184. 

Cotton  not  king,  196. 

Courage  of  Davis,  387,  397. 

Court  of  Claims,  Jurisdiction  of,  281. 

Courts-martial,  211,  333,  334,  337. 

Cox,  C.  C.,  375. 

Cox,  S.  S.,  242,  318,  320,  337,  339,  340,  391. 

Creswell,  John  A.  J.,  78,  217,  275,  297,  298,  300,  386. 

Crisfield,  John  W.,  275,  301. 

Cross  Street  Market,  Political  meeting  at,  114,  115. 

Crittenden  Compromise,  196. 

Cuba,  169. 

Cullen,  Elisha  D.,  84,  no. 

Currency  Bill  of  1864,  282. 

Currency,  Depreciated,  322  to  325. 

Cushing,  Wm.  B.,  348. 

Cushing,  Joseph  M.,  4,  297,  345,  371,  396. 


Davis,  Mrs.  Constance  Gardiner,  64. 

Davis,  Dr.  David,  15,  18,  43. 

Davis,  Rev.  Henry  Lyon,  7,  8,  16,  26,  40,  42,  272. 

Davis,  Mrs.  Jane  Brown  Winter,  10,  16. 

Davis,  Miss  Jane  Mary  Winter,  10,  17,  42  44. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  39,  361. 

Davis,  Prof.  John  A.  D.,  47,  51,  53,  56,  63. 

Davis,  Justice  David,  18,  375. 

Davis,  Miss  Mary  Winter,  3,   109. 

Davis,  Mrs.  Nancy  M.,  3,  109,  in,  371,  384. 

Davis's  death,  372,  373,  396. 


INDEX.  403 

Davis's  dress,  66. 

Davis-Wade  Manifesto,  288,  289  to  296,  344,  345. 

Davis-Wade  Bill,  see  Reconstruction. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  239,  283  to  285,  332,  343,  346,  396. 

Dayton,  William  L.,  259,  260. 

Deficiency  Bills,  99,  100. 

Delaware,  198. 

Democrats,  Danger  from  their  success  in  1864,  218. 

Democrats,  Disloyal,  218  to  220,  278,  313,  314;  opposition  to 
Lincoln,  243,  308. 

Democrats,  Dissolution  of  party,  in  1860,  160. 

Democrats,  in  1860,  162,  171,  178. 

Democrats,  Policy  of  terrorism  denounced  by  Davis,  148,  153, 
165,  169. 

Democratic  party  in  1856,  Davis's  opinion  of,  89,  91,  96,  104, 
106. 

Democrats  responsible  for  war,  219,  227. 

Democrats,  War,  197,  219. 

De  1'Huys,  Drouyn,  260. 

Devotion  to  principle,  387. 

Dickinson  College,  8,  16. 

District  of  Columbia,  Slavery  in,  187,  213,  215,  245,  315. 

Dix,  John  A.,  189,  215. 

Doane,  Bishop  George  W.,  65. 

Donaldson,  Thomas,  79. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  164,  165,  171. 

Dred  Scott  Case,  132,  139,  140,  165,  192,  203,  359. 

Dueling  at  University  of  Virginia,  52. 

Dupont,  Admiral  S.  F.,  231,  280,  281,  342,  343. 

Dupont,  Mrs.  S.  F.,  372. 

E 

Early,  Gen.  Jubal  A.,1%>4. 

Eastern  Female  High  School,  Davis's  address  in  1858,  133. 
Eastern  Shore  Campaign  of  1863,  217,  267,  299,  300. 
Eastern  Shore  politics  in  1859,  156. 
Easton,  Md.,  298. 
Economy  favored,   136,  141,   160. 
Election  judges,  Duties  of,  96. 
Electoral  votes  for  President,  Counting  of,  102. 
Elkton,  Md.,  13,  196,  217,  298. 

Eloquence  of  Davis,  66,  376,  380,  384,  386,  387,  389  to  392. 
Emancipation,  201;  proclamation,  215,  216,  221,  222,  226,  253, 
268,  291,  314,  354. 

Emancipation  in  Maryland,  217,  228,  231,  267,  297  to  300,  315, 

363,  385- 

Eminent  domain,  158. 

Eminent  domain,  Did  Congress  possess  it  in  Maryland,  99. 

England,  Alliance  with  advocated,  71,  73,  74. 

England  in  1861,  181 ;  hostility,  230  to  232,  361. 

English  influence  at  Kenyon,  31. 

English  literature,  29. 


>4  INDEX. 

Equador,  341. 

Europe,  Davis's  tour  in  1854,  80. 

Europe,  Opposition  of,  to  United  States,  357. 

Eutaw  House,  Baltimore,  217. 

Everett,  Edward,   165. 

Expenditure  of  Government  within  year,  119. 

Expenditure  over  appropriation  condemned,  135. 

Export  duties,  316,  349. 


Farnsworth,  John  F.,  318,  319,  336. 

Farragut,  Admiral,  327. 

Fearlessness  of  Davis,  67,  114,  210,  375,  379,  380,  384;  shown 
in  speech  on  censure  of  House  of  Delegates,  144. 

Federal  Judiciary,  Position  of,  87. 

"Federalist,"  The,  51. 

Fillmore,  Millard,  80,  88,  90,  91,  93,  100,  150. 

Findlay,  John  V.  L.,  210. 

First  Maryland  Regiment,  286. 

Florida,    359. 

Florida,  The,  230. 

Foreign  Affairs  Committee,  Davis's  service  on,  317. 

Forney,  John  W.,  388. 

Fort  Fisher,  347. 

Fort  Monroe,  Barracks  at,  158. 

Fort  Sumter,  188,  204,  281,  314. 

Fort  Wagner,  221. 

Fox,  Gustavus  V.,  281,  326,  328,  342,  345,  347. 

France,  hostile,  232;  in  Mexico,  257  to  266,  317. 

Fremont,  John  C.,  88,  92,  201. 

French  language,  46,  53. 

French  Colonies,  Negroes  in,  270. 

French  Revolution,  30;  Republic,  357. 

Frick,  William  F.,  79. 

Friday  Club,  66. 

Front  Royal,  Va.,  286. 

Fugitive  Slave  law,  100,  131,  163,  185. 

Fuller,  Thomas  J.  D.,  84,  no. 

Funeral  of  Davis,  374,  375. 

Fusion  between  Republicans  and  Southern  Whigs  proposed  in 
I859>  137,  138;  in  1860,  161,  169,  170,  191. 


Gambier,  Ohio,  19,  22  to  40. 
Granson,  John,  320,  343. 
Gardiner,  Miss  Constance  C.,  64. 
Gardiner,  William  C.,  64. 
Garfield,  James  A.,  321,  348. 
Garner,  Frank,  12. 
Gassoway,  Stephen  G.,  34,  35. 
Georgetown,  Md.,  13. 


INDEX.  405 


German  language,  46,  53. 

Gettysburg,  Battle  of,  217,  220. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  as  a  historian,  30,  43. 

Giddings,  Joshua  S.,  100. 

Giles,  William  F.,  34,  35,  396. 

Gilmer,  John  A.,  144,  145. 

Gilmore,  Gen.  Quincy  A.,  221. 

Glenn,  W.  Wilkins,  234. 

Goddard,  Henry  P.,  4,  78,  79,  192,  233,  345,  396. 

Goods  in  bond  destroyed  by  fire,  in. 

Graham,  John  T.,  4,  192,  193,  288,  346,  371,  372. 

Greece,   Ancient,  overthrown  by  Macedon,   73. 

Greek  language,  17. 

Greeley,  Horace,  67,  137,  193,  293,  380. 

Groome,  J.  C.,  141. 

Grow,  Galusha  A.,  93,  no,  167,  191. 

Gwinn,  C.  J.  M.,  397. 


H 


Habeas  Corpus  Act,   Suspended,  205,  208,  215,  224,  311,  312, 
320,  321. 

Hale,  Senator  John  P.,  348. 

Hall,  E.  J.,  190. 

Halleck,  Gen.  H.  W.,  375- 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  223,  289. 

Hampton,  Va.,  12. 

Harrington,  H.  W.,  338. 

Harris,  Benjamin  G.,  141,  275,  282,  337,  343,  344. 

Harris,  J.  Morrison,  84,  109,  115,  116,  144,  376. 

Harris,  W.  Hall,  4. 

Harrison,  Prof.  Gessner,  46,  63. 

Harrison,  W.  H.,  39,  60,  214. 

Harvard  Law  School,  45. 

Havre  de  Grace,  12. 

Hicks,  Thomas  H.,  114,  141,  198,  199,  200. 

Higher  Law  Doctrine,  100. 

History,  Writers  of,  29. 

Hobart,  Rev.  Dr.  John  H.,  374. 

Holt,  Joseph,  189. 

Holy  Alliance,  71. 

Home  life  of  Davis,  109. 

Hopkins,  Johns,    196. 

Hosmer,  James  K.,  Opinion  of  Davis,  236,  255,  340. 

House  of  Representatives,  Corruption  of  members  in  1857,  101. 

House  of  Representatives,  Election  to,  87. 

House  of  Representatives,  Use  of  its  Hall,  343. 

House  of  Representatives,  Visited  by  Davis  in  1865,  371. 

Hunt,  F.  K.,   34. 

Hunter,  R.  M.  T.,  51,  63. 


406  INDEX. 

I 

Independence  Day  Oration  in  1865,  354. 
Independence,  Declaration  of,  354,  364,  380,  394,  398. 
Indians  in  Massachusetts,  270. 

Insurrection,  Power  of  Federal  Government  to  suppress,  183, 
184,  204  to  207,  223,  225,  228,  238,  249,  250. 
Irish  in  New  York,  270. 


Jackson,  Andrew,  25,  215,  221,  231,  295. 

Jamaica,  270. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  48,  50,  100,  215,  360. 

Johns,  Rev.  H.  V.  D.,  65. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  287,  350,  353,  360,  363,  366,  370,  396,  397. 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  3,  67,  79,  165,  210,  234,  312,  386. 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  Jr.,  397. 

Jones,  W.  J.,  396. 

Julian,  George  W.,  349,  392. 

K 

Kansas  election  in  1855,  Davis's  speech  on,  85  to  88. 

Kansas-Nebraska  question,  91,  93,  103  to  106,  121,  122,  126  to 
131,  141,  155,  158,  160,  166,  285,  359. 

Kenly,  John  R.,  286. 

Kennedy,  Anthony,  143,  191. 

Kentucky,  222. 

Kenyon  College,  9,  19  to  40;  curriculum,  29. 

Keith,  Lawrence  M.,  85,  no. 

Keith,  Rev.  Revel,  59,  63. 

Key,  P.  Barton,  16,  18. 

Know  Nothings  in  House  of  Delegates  fail  to  support  Davis, 
151. 

Know  Nothings,  80,  190;  political  views  of,  81 ;  position  on 
slavery,  108 ;  eulogized,  285. 

Kossuth,  Louis,  71. 


Labor,  Davis  upon,  75,  76. 
Lake,  William  A.,  109. 
Land,  Non-resident  owners  of,  142. 
Lane,  Joseph,  100. 
Latin,  n,  17,  25. 

Latin  America,  Endangered  by  France,  257;  Republican  policy 
toward,  258,  259. 

Lecompton  Constitution,  121,  122,  127  to  130. 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  39,  221. 

Legal  ability  of  Davis,  375,  378,  389,  391,  397. 

Liberia,  14,  44,  145,  216. 

Lieutenant-general,  341. 

Ligon,  Thomas  W.,  113,  141,  346. 


INDEX.  407 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  in  1860,  162,  163,  166,  168,  171,  191,  218; 
considers  Davis  for  Cabinet,  189,  190,  192;  appoints  Blair,  189; 
opinion  of  Davis,  192;  inauguration  of,  198;  must  be  supported, 
200,  201,  232,  268.  Border  State  policy  weak,  201 ;  Davis's  opin 
ion  of  in  1861,  209;  habeas  corpus  policy,  215,  224;  writes  as  to 
Davis's  Congressional  candidacy,  235,  338;  vetoes  Davis-Wade 
Bill,  255  to  257;  relations  with  France,  260;  does  not  aid  Mary 
land  Union  men,  267,  315;  issues  proclamation  on  Davis-Wade 
Bill,  286  to  288. 

Lincoln  and  Davis-Wade  Manifesto,  293  to  297. 

Lincoln,  Assassination  of,  396. 

Lincoln,  flight  through  Baltimore  needless,  336. 

Lincoln  opposed  by  Davis,  382. 

Lincoln,  Renomination  for  Presidency,  304. 

Lincoln  supported  by  Davis  in  campaign  of  1864,  305  to  308, 
310,  346,  393. 

Lincoln,  Welles  compares  his  memorial  with  Davis's,  397. 

Lincoln's  second  inaugural  address,  354;  his  reconstruction 
policy,  366. 

Lisovski,  Admiral,  232. 

Literary  societies  at  Kenyon  College,  25  to  33. 

Literary  style  of  Davis,  387,  390. 

Littlejohn,  DeWitt  C.,  346. 

Long,  Alexander,  expelled  from  House  of  Representatives, 
275  to  277. 

Louisiana,  Annexation  of,  359. 

Louisiana,  Reconstruction  of,  230,  241,  253,  268,  287,  290,  291, 
316,  366. 

Lovell,  Gen.  Mansfield,  16,  18. 

Lowe,  Gov.  Enoch  Louis,  82. 

Loyal  citizens  of  rebel  States,  121. 

Luther  vs.  Borden,  208,  249,  254,  291. 

Lynch,  Dr.,  of  Baltimore  county,  145. 

M 

McCarthy  on  Davis-Wade  Manifesto,  295. 

McClellan,  George  B.,  12,  214,  307,  309,  311,  312,  314. 

McClernand,  John  A.,  144,  190. 

McDowell,  T.,  13. 

Mcllwaine,  Bishop  Charles  P.,  19,  36  to  38,  45,  59. 

McKaig,  State  Senator,  145. 

Madison,  James,  223. 

Majority,  Right  of,  187. 

Malvern  Hill,   12. 

Marley  Bridge,  67. 

Marshall,   Humphrey,    109. 

Martial  law,  205,  207,  335. 

Martin,  Judge  R.  N.,  375. 

Maryland  a  border  State,  86,  131,  172,  173,  204. 

Maryland  campaign  of  1860,  190. 

Maryland  coal  trade,  261. 

Maryland  Congressmen  ordered  seated  in  1863,  236,  266. 


408  INDEX. 

Maryland  Constitution  of  1864,  217,  267,  299,  300,  304. 

Maryland  Delegates  to  Republican  Convention  of  1860,  159. 

Maryland  election  of  1863,  217,  267. 

Maryland  excludes  Secessionists  from  suffrage,  300. 

Maryland,  Failure  to  fill  quota  of  troops,  200. 

Maryland  Gubernatorial  election  of  1857,  113. 

Maryland  Institute  address  of  Davis,  1853,  74. 

Maryland  in  War  of  1812,  117. 

Maryland  Legislature  and  proposal  to  censure  Davis  for  vote 
for  Pennington,  145,  146,  156;  Davis's  speech  on  the  censure, 
146. 

Maryland  Legislature  in  1861,  198  to  200,  311. 

Maryland  Legislature,  Session  of  1860,  190. 

Maryland,  Love  for  the  Union,  93. 

Maryland,  Negroes'  vote  in,  369. 

Maryland,  Slavery  in,  272. 

Maryland,  Struggle  for  Union,  172;  ruined  by  disunion,  173 
to  177,  189,  191,  192,  194,  205,  286. 

Maryland,  Treatment  of  disunionists  in,  312,  321. 

Maryland,  Union  sentiment  in,  177,  186,  187,  195,  197,  198,  200, 
336. 

Mason  and  Dixon  Line,  200. 

Massachusetts,  Elections  in,  284,  343. 

Matthews,  R.  Stockett,  378. 

Maund,  George  C.,  371,  396. 

Manual  Labor  Education,  24. 

May,  Henry,  83,  109,  196,  233. 

Maximilian  I  in  Mexico,  358. 

Meade,  Bishop  William,  58,  63. 

Merryman,  Ex  parte,  208. 

Methodists,  14. 

Meteors  of  1834,  28. 

Mexico,  270;  Buchanan's  aggressions  on,  159,  160,  169. 

Mexico,  French  aggression  in,  in,  230,  231,  257  to  260,  317, 
3*9,  341,.  358. 

Miami  Indians,  142. 

Michigan,  39;  admission  as  State,  127,  132. 

Military  governors,  338. 

Military  imprisonments,  320,  334,  335. 

Military  rule  in  South,  364,  369. 

Milligan,  George  B.,  4. 

Minnesota,  admission  of,  126,  131,  132. 

Mississippi   (State),  Opinion  of,  in  1838,  44. 

Missouri,  222,  315;  Congressmen  in  1863,  236,  268,  282,  284. 

Missouri  Compromise,  106,  130,  167,  185,  359. 

Mobile,  327,  329. 

Monitors  disapproved,  327. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  74,  358. 

Moore,  Mr.,  student  at  Kenyon,  28. 

Moors  in  Spain,  270. 

Morgan,  E.  D.  304. 

Morrill  Agricultural  College  Bill,  161. 

Morrill,  Justin  S.,  211,  347. 


INDEX.  409 

Morris,  John  B.,  109. 

Morris,  Miss  Nancy,  109. 

Napoleon  III,  72,  ui,  181,  230,  231,  358. 

"Nation,"  The,  364,  380. 

National  Banks,  343  ;  taxation  of  by  States,  282. 

National  road,  21. 

Naturalized  citizens,   privileges  of,   94. 

Naval  Committee,  328 ;  Davis  member  of,  280. 

Navy,  325  to  330,  348. 

Navy,  Abolition  of  sailing  vessels  in,  158;  reorganization  of, 
161. 

Nebraska,  no,  142. 

Negro  question  and  Democrats,  161,  179. 

Negro  suffrage,  330,  350,  352  to  354,  362  to  366,  369,  370. 

Negroes,  Enlistment  of,  221,  228,  229,  231,  236,  263  to  265,  274, 
315,  342,  356,  362. 

Negroes,  Equality  with  whites,  229,  269,  271,  272,  301. 

Negroes,  Free,' in  Maryland,  230,  272,  274,  342. 

Negroes,  Free,  in  Maryland,  attempt  to  re-enslave  in  1860, 
147. 

Negroes,  Freedom  and  position  of,  222. 

Negroes  listen  to  Davis,  298. 

Negroes'  tribute  to  Davis,  383. 

Newark,  N.  J.,  214. 

New  Jersey,  36. 

New  Mexico,  no;  slavery  in,  138,  186. 

New  Orleans,  215. 

Newspapers,  Davis's  attitude  toward,  118. 

New  York  City,  231,  232;  riots  of  1863,  270. 

New  York  City  Conference  against  Lincoln,  305. 

"New  York  Tribune,"  137,  293. 

Niagara  Falls,  67. 

Nicholls,  Letter  of  Davis  to,  191. 

Nicolay  and  Hay  on  Davis-Wade  Manifesto,  295. 

Ninetenth  Century,  History  of,  71. 

Norfolk,  Va.,  174. 

North  Carolina,  369. 

North,  Conservative  position  of,  in  1860,  168. 

Nullification  movement,  25. 

O 

Oath  of  allegiance,  339. 
Odd  Fellows,  Davis's  opinion  of,  76. 
Officer,  Extra  pay  for,  98. 

Ohio,  21,  126;  boundary  dispute  with  Michigan,  39;  contrast 
with  Virginia,  49. 

Ordnance,  Purchase  of,  159. 

Oregon,  100. 

Orr,  James  L.,  51,  63. 

P 

Pacific  Railroad,  119,  158,  161. 

Panama,    143. 

Paper  money,  117,  118. 


4io  INDEX. 

Paraguay.  98;  expedition  against,  135,  160. 

Parks,  Rev.  Martin  P.,  60,  63. 

Partridge,  James  T.,  194,  371. 

Patapsco  river,  386;  improvement,  no,  117. 

Pearce,  James  Alfred,  272. 

Pennington,  William  S.,  93,  no;  elected  Speaker,  144,  148  to 
150,  154,  161,  199. 

Pennsylvania,  Foreign  vote  in  1856,  107. 

Pennsylvania's  interest  in  the  war,  220. 

"People  of  the  United  States,"  132. 

Personal  appearance  of  Davis,  372,  380,  396. 

Personal   liberty  laws,   185. 

Perry,  O.  H.,  221. 

Peru,  358. 

Phelps,  Gen.  Charles  E.,  293. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  28,  218,  305. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  193. 

Philosophy,  29. 

Pierce,  E.  L.,  287,  340. 

Pierce,  Franklin,  Davis's  opinion  of,  88,  93,  102,  103. 

Pinkney,  William,  129;  speech  on  Missouri  Compromise,  106, 
130,  131- 

Pitts,  C.  H.,  79. 

Political  bitterness,  15. 

Political  prisoners,  211. 

Politics  in  1852,  73. 

Port  Hudson,  221. 

Port  Royal  expedition,  326,  342. 

Postal  service,  142. 

Post  Roads,  Power  to  build,  98,  119,  120. 

Potomac  river,  158,  174. 

President,  Commander  of  Army,  206. 

President,  Counting  electoral  votes  for,  102. 

President,  Power  of,  139,  140,  232. 

Presidential  election  of  1836,  39. 

Presidential  election  of  1840,  61. 

Presidential  election  of  1852,  67. 

Presidential  election  of  1856,  80,  88,  92,  102,  105  to  107. 

Presidential  election  of  1860,  160,  171,  179,  200;  Democrats 
favor  slave  extension,  137;  importance  of,  138  to  141  attempt  at 
fusion  of  Whigs  and  Republicans,  137,  138,  191. 

Presidential  election  of  1860,  if  thrown  into  Congress,  170. 

Presidential  election  of  1864,  218,  221,  305  to  309,  346. 

President's  relation  to  Congress,  141,  143. 

Printing  by  National  Government,  97,  98. 

Protection,   161. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church  Convention  of  Diocese  of  Vir 
ginia,  57,  58;  Davis's  membership,  65,  66. 

Public  lands  in  Kansas,  131,  142. 

Public  opinion,  277. 

Public  schools,  134. 

Pulaski,  Steamship,  18. 


INDEX.  4.H 

R 

Rafferty,  Rev.  William,  9,  16. 

Reading  of  Davis,  77,  377. 

Reagan,  John  H.,  130. 

Reconstruction  by  President,  238  to  241,  243,  252,  292,  339  to 
34i,  350,  364,  365- 

Reconstruction,  Congress's  power,  293,  330,  331,  340. 

Reconstruction,  Congress's  power  to  determine  its  own  mem 
bership,  291,  368. 

Reconstruction,  Congressional  power  over,  supported  by  Su 
preme  Court,  287,  344. 

Reconstruction,  Davis-Wade  Bill,  237,  246  to  248,  253  to  257, 
286,  290,  316,  340. 

Reconstruction,  Importance  of,  350,  361. 

Reconstruction,  Restoration  theory,  222 ;  Congressional  power 
over,  223,  224,  226,  228,  231,  240  to  243,  245,  249,  250,  254,  255, 
363,  368. 

Reeder,  Gov.  Andrew  H.,  of  Kansas,  85,  no. 

Religious  faith  of  Davis,  77,  377. 

Religious  freedom,  133,  134. 

Representation,  Unequal  in  Maryland,  300. 

Representative,  Relation  to  constituents,  148,  149. 

Representative,  Relation  to  country,  152 

Republican  government,   368. 

Republican  party  in  1856,  Davis's  opinion  of,  89,  107,  108. 

Republican  party  in  1860,  162,  163,  166,  167. 

Republican  party  in  1864,  315. 

Republican  Convention  of  1860,  159,  167,  193. 

Republican  form  of  government,  guarantee  to  States,  183,  206, 
223,  226,  231,  238,  24.1,  242,  248,  249,  251,  253,  352,  361,  368. 

Republicans  in  1859,  as  to  slavery  in  States,  150,  168,  188. 

Republicans  in  Maryland  in  1860,  157,  192. 

Restriction  on  States  when  admitted  to  the  Union,  130,  131. 

Rhodes,  John  F.,  339. 

Richardson,  Rev.  C.  Herbert,  396. 

Richardson,  William  A.,  84,  no. 

Richmond,  Va.,  221,  343. 

Riddle's  Life  of  Wade,  397. 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  62,  63. 

River  and  harbor  appropriations  favored  by  Davis,  136,  161. 

Rives,  William  C.,  61,  63. 

Roads  for  military  purposes  constitutional,  98,  119. 

Rogers,  Prof.  William  Barton,  47,  53,  63. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  67. 

Roman  Catholics  in  Politics,  81. 

Romney,  W.  Va.,  41. 

"Rupert  of  debate,"  388. 

Russia,  Dangers  from,  68  to  74. 

Russia  friendly  in  1861,  202,  232. 

Russia  serfdom  abolished,  233. 


4i2  INDEX. 


Saint  Anne's  Church,  Annapolis,  7. 

Saint  John's  College,  Annapolis,  7,  8,  n,  16. 

Saint  Paul  street,  residence  of  Davis,  372. 

Saint  Paul's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Baltimore,  374. 

Salary  of  officers,  322. 

Salisbury,  Md.,  217,  298. 

Sallust,  25. 

San  Domingo,  270,  357. 

Savannah,   327. 

Schenck,  Robert  C.,  347,  348. 

Schley,  William,  375. 

Scholarship  of  Davis,  77,  89,  376,  389,  390. 

Schools  in  Alexandria,  65. 

Scott,  Robert  E.,  of  Fauquier,  42,  45. 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  180,  214. 

Scott's  novels,  15. 

Scovel,  James  M.,  346. 

Secession,  a  conspiracy,  354. 

Secession  and  nullification  in  1840,  50. 

Secession  destroys  State  governments,  367. 

Secession,  peaceful,  a  delusion,  173  ,176,  182,  196,  356. 

Secession,  revolution,  92,  206,  241,  249. 

Secession,  successful  results  of,  181 ;  causes  of,  184,  204,  360. 

Secessionists,  100. 

Secessionists  in  Baltimore  in  1861,  197,  in  Congress,  276. 

Sectional  parties  condemned,  107. 

Seddon,  James  A.,  51,  63. 

Senatorial  candidacy  of  Davis,  210,  233. 

Seward,  William  H.,  195,  257,  259,  260,  280,  317  to  319,  345. 

Sherman,  John,  156,  166,  246,  256,  390. 

Shubrick,  Admiral,    343. 

Sickles,  Gen.  Daniel,  16,  18. 

Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  194,  213. 

Slaughter,  Rev.  Philip,  59,  63. 

Slaveholders'  Convention  in  Maryland  in  1859,  272. 

Slave  trade,  foreign,  in  1858,  136,  137. 

Slave  trade,  interstate,  187. 

Slavery,  cause  of  the  war,  358,  359,  382. 

Slavery,  abolition  of  by  Constitutional  amendment,  216,  226, 
227,  252,  255. 

Slavery,  abolition  of  as  result  of  war,  218,  268,  269,  315,  355. 

Slavery,  attempt  to  have  it  ignored  in  Presidential  platform 
of  1860,  138,  163,  165. 

Slavery,  development  of  justification  of,  359. 

Slavery  in  District  of  Columbia,  213,  215. 

Slavery  in  forts  and  dockyards,  187. 

Slavery,  growing  in  strength  in  South  in  1859,  137. 

Slavery,  Know  Nothing  opinion  of,  82. 

Slavery  minimized,  69;  agitation  deprecated  in  1858,  144. 

Slavery  in  States,  188. 

Slavery  in  Territories,  138,  166,  167. 

Slavery  in  Territories,  power  of  Congress  over,  65,  82,  164, 
165,  169,  186. 


INDEX.  413 

Slavery,  a  theory  of,  to  be  avoided,  156. 
Slavery  in  United  States  Constitution,  369. 
Slavery  in  Virginia,  50,  59. 
Slavery,  Whig  view  of,  140. 
Slaves  freed  when  bought  into  State,  245. 
Slaves  of  rebels  to  be  confiscated,  212. 
Slaves  of  Rev.  H.  L.  Davis,  n  to  14,  43. 
Snow  Hill,  Md.,  217,  298. 
Smeider,   William,   34. 
Smith,  Howard,  34. 
Smith,  Job,  233. 
Smith,  W.  R.,   109. 
Socialism,  Davis's  opinion,  76. 
South  America,  259,  270. 

South  Carolina,  secession  of,  171,  172;   in  1861,  179,  180. 
South,  prejudices  of,  26. 
Southern  Maryland,  267,  300. 
Sovereignty,  Davis's  view  of,  69,  106,  124. 
Spain,  357. 

Spalding,  Rufus  P.,  346. 
Sparrow,  William,  34,  35,  45. 

Speakership,  struggle  for,  170;  in  1855,  84;  in  1859,  144,  148, 
153,  154,  156,  159,  161,  190. 
Spooner,  Mrs.,  14. 
Squatter  Sovereignty,  105. 
Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  189,  236,  315,  321,  375. 
State  Bank  Notes  to  be  driven  out,  282,  343. 
State,  coercion  of,  182,  196,  204. 
State  rights,  51. 
State  sovereignty,   131. 

States,  claims  of  in  Army  Bill  of  1859,  143. 
States,  compacts  between,  153,  176,  178. 
States,  equality  of,  106,  122,  124. 

States,  not  destroyed  by  war,  224,  225,  228,  242,  351,  356. 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  104. 
Stephens  on  Pleading,  54. 
Stevens,  Thaddeus,   supported  by  Davis,  237,   318,    320,    323, 

333,  334,  34i,  347,  397- 

Stewart,  James  A.,  156,  157. 

Stirling,  Archibald,  Jr.,  194,  288,  371,  379. 

Stockbridge,  Henry,  4. 

Story,  Joseph,  Works  of,  51,  54. 

Sub-treasury,  118. 

Suffrage  a  State  issue,  368. 

Suffrage  of  men  not  yet  naturalized,  131,  353. 

Suffrage  of  Southern  whites  after  war,  351,  360,  362,  366. 

Sumner,  Charles,  259,  305;  eulogizes  Davis,  380,  396,  397. 

"Sun"  newspaper,  373. 

Supreme  Court  Reports,  Alden's  Index  to,  no. 

Susquehanna  River  improvement,  13,  no. 

Swann,  Thomas,  113,  373,  375. 

Swayne,  Mr.  Justice,  375. 

Syle,  Rev.  Edward  W.,  10,  17. 


4i4  INDEX. 

T 

Tacitus,  17,  42. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  89,  208. 

Tariff  changes,  effect  of,  302. 

Tariff  of  1857,  u8. 

Taxation,  212;  by  Congress,  262;  of  slaves,  302,  303. 

Taylor,  Zachary,  150,  215. 

Tehuantepec,  142. 

Tennessee,  222,  251,  268. 

Territories,  government  of,  87. 

Territories,  power  of  Congress  over,  130;  slavery  therein,  65, 
82,  104,  164. 

Texas,  126. 

Tilton,  Theodore,  388. 

Toleration,  religious,  133. 

Topeka  Constitution,  93,  127. 

Towson,  Md.,  217. 

Transcontinental  Exploring  Expedition,  97 ;  military  road,  98, 
119. 

Treason,  213,  224,  225,  361. 

Treason,  constructive,  93. 

Treasury  notes,  117,  118,  322  to  325. 

Trevelyan,  Sir  George  O.,  394. 

"Tribune,"  N.  Y.,  194. 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  354. 

Tucker,  Prof.  George,  47,  63. 

Tyng,  Rev.  Stephen  H.,  59,  63.  , 

U 

Union  Club,  Baltimore,  371,  373. 

Union  men  in  South  in  1840,  50. 

Union  men  in  South  in  1860,  251,  252,  351,  352,  360. 

Uruguay,  98. 

Utah,  Rebellion  in,  120,  160,  183. 


Valk,  W.  W.,  109. 

Vallandigham  vs.  Campbell,  142. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  39,  61. 

Vattel's  International  Law,  54. 

Venezuela,  341. 

Vermont,  126. 

Vice-Presidency,  Davis  suggested  for  in  1864,  304. 

Virginia  and  John  Brown's  invasion  153,  155. 

Virginia's  attempt  to  prevent  secession,  186. 

Virginia,  Importance  of  campaign  in,  231. 

Virginia,  University  of,  buildings,  48. 

Virginia,  Davis's  tutorship  in,  44. 

Virginia,  University  of,  character  of  students,  52,  56. 

Virginia,  University  of,  curriculum  of,  46,  47. 

Virginia,  University  of,  diplomas  of,  53. 


INDEX.  415 

Virginia,  University  of,  English  training  at,  52. 
Virginia,  University  of,  invitation  to  Davis  to  address  liter 
ary  societies  in  1857,  115. 

Virginia,  University  of,  law  school,  47,  48,  54  to  56. 

Virginia,  University  of,  literary  societies  at,  53. 

Virginia,  University  of,  political  opinions  of  students,  49,  129. 

Virginia,  University  of,  religion  at,  48,  49. 

Virginia,  University  of,  social  life  at,  57. 

Virginia,  University  of,  46  to  58. 

Virginia,  Reconstruction  in,  226,  339,  361,  366. 

Virginia,  Slavery  in,  50,  253,  272,  291. 


W 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  288,  292,  294,  296,  304,  305,  325,  348,  353, 

397- 

Walker,  E.  J.,  109. 

Wallis,  Severn  T.,  79. 

War  Department'  lacks  confidence  in  Maryland,  200. 

War  of  1812,  Maryland's  share  in,  117. 

War  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  68  to  74. 

War,  Power  of  President,  206  to  209,  332,  335. 

War,  Proper  method  of  conducting,  313. 

Washbourne,  Elihu  B.,  217. 

Washington  Aqueduct,  99,  120. 

Washington,  Bushrod,  41. 

Washington  County,  Union,  199. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  66  suffrage  in,  94,  96;  railroad  to,  343. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  in  1861,  199. 

Washington,  Election  riots  in  1857,  116,  117,  160,  284,  346. 

Washington,  George,  206,  207,  221,  223,  231. 

Washington,  George,  opinion  on  entangling  alliances,  74. 

Washington's  Birthday,   1866,   386. 

Watrous,  Judge,  of  Texas,  142. 

Ways  and  Means  Committee,  Davis  on,  86. 

Webster,  Daniel,  106,  203,  254. 

Weed,  Thurlow,    189. 

Welles,  Gideon,  280,  293,  294,  304,  319,  328,  330,  342,  344,  347, 
348,  353,  383,  397- 

West,  Miss,  of  the  Woody ard,  15. 

West  Point,  36,   158. 

West  Virginia,  a  necessity  if  Virginia  secedes,  175,  222,  251, 

3i5- 

Wheat,  Mr.,  schoolmaster,  n. 

Wheaton's  International  Law,  54. 

Wheeler,  John,   109. 

Whig,  National   Convention  of  1852,   67. 

Whigs,  Southern,  in  1859,  137. 

Whiskey  insurrection,  8,  206. 

Whitfield,  J.  W.,  Delegate  from  Kansas,  86. 

Whitney,  Milton,  234. 

Whittingham,  Bishop  William  R.,  65. 


*  4i6  INDEX. 


Whyte,   William   Pinkney,    115. 

Wilkes,  Admiral   Charles,   329,  342. 

Wilkinson,   Gen.   James,   215. 

Wilmer,  Rev.  George  T.,  16,  18. 

Wilmer,  Bishop  Richard  H.,  of  Alabama,  16,  18. 

Wilmer,  Mrs.  William  Holland,  15,  18. 

Wilmington,  Del.,  n,  13. 

Wilmot,  David,  of  Pennsylvania,  159. 

Wing,  Mr.,  treasurer  of  Kenyon  College,  20. 

Winter,  Miss  Elizabeth  Brice,  n,  42  to  44. 

Winthrop,  Robert  C.,   67. 

Wise,   Gov.   Henry  A.,   113. 

Witnesses  before  Congressional  Committee,  101. 

Woart,  Rev.  Loring,  15. 

Women,  Proper  sphere  of,  134. 

Wool,  Duty  on,  157. 

Wool,  Gen.  John  E.,  215,  234. 


Yale  Law  School,  45. 
Yeas  and  Nays,  282. 
Yellott,  Coleman,  190. 


Zollicoffer,  Felix  M.,  84,  no. 


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